Control
by Paroxysm
Summary: Between X2 and X3. Bobby cheats on Rogue with Kitty. Feeling betrayed, Rogue sets out on her own and experiences the darker side of life. She returns four years later drastically changed. New chapters one up!
1. Prologue

A/N: Personally, I hate the soddin' version of Rogue in the movies! Rogue is my _fav _comic book character, and considering that I read a lot of comic books, and I have a lot of comic book favs (Emma Frost, Mystique, Peter Parker, etc.,). Therefore, I decided to recreate Rogue from the useless (I'm sorry if you love the Movie version of her) _non-_Rogue that she is, into the sassy, Mississippi flirt that she should be. I also have an affinity for Rogue Evo, so I'm implementing her characteristics as well.

Therefore there's going to be a big change ladies and gents!

And as always-rated for sex and rock 'n roll.

_Also: _The plot's not fully thought out yet, neither are the possible pairings, so everything's mostly spontaneous at the moment.

**Title: Control**

**Summary: Between X2 and X3. Bobby cheated on Rogue with her best friend Kitty. She runs away to find a life of her own and, in the process, falls prey to the darker side of the world. **

**Disclaimer: **Shut up and deal with my lack of ownership.

O o O o O

Prologue

The tears wouldn't stop. They filled her eyes with a blur that made it difficult for her to see as she clumsily threw clothes into her bag. Her hands were shaking, and she had to physically prevent herself from screaming at the injustice of it all.

_Bobby and Kitty_.

She had not thought it capable. She had watched them with their inner jokes, their sideway glances and sometimes flirting conversations and she had kept quiet, believing herself to be jealous and foolish for even indulging in such wayward thoughts.

Obviously her naïveté was not as truthful as her instinct.

Flashes of them drifted into her vision. Bobby's exposed chest covering Kitty's barely dressed form-a tumble of cotton sheets hiding their gyrating bodies and the _smell. _Sweat and the thick intoxication of sex around them. The moans and the gasps, the heated whispers in the dark.

They had probably been doing that behind her back for weeks and she had deceived herself, blinded herself and lowered herself to a pitiful _convenience. _And to think, the only reason she had found out was because they thought she was gone.

It was customary for the residents of the mansion to go on a three week skiing trip during the holidays. Xavier believed the vacation was necessary for the students to unravel, and most of the mansion, including all of the adults, either went on the vacation trip or visited their families.

There were those who decided to stay from time to time, but that was usually uncommon. Rogue herself loved skiing and the snow. The layers of clothing she wore seemed natural in the forever cold environment.

Bobby had decided not to go. He was going to visit his family like he always did, perhaps try to fix what had happened before during John's rampage. Kitty wasn't going either. The school girl was obsessed with having all her homework and class projects in perfect condition before returning to school.

Or so they led her to believe.

She had returned a week early on account of a knee injury, and behold! To her surprise her suspicions that she had been full of guilt for were confirmed. She didn't know if they had seen her, because she had turned swiftly on her heel and began packing.

It was an epiphany. Everything she wanted thrown in her face! Writhing beneath the sheets! To touch! To feel, just to be able to be close to without the possibility of death. Xavier had promised to help her, but she had found no control in his methodology or his strict rules and ideologies.

She thought she had a family, but she now realized how foolish the idea was. Bobby was not content with a fruitless relationship. The inability to even hug her was probably driving him mad. Kitty had betrayed her. Smiled in her face and lied so profusely.

And Logan. Wolverine had abandoned her, Wolverine had understood the truth of the world, in the end, you're on your own.

"Rogue!" The knock was followed by incessant pulling on the doorknob.

Rogue stared at the door for a moment, her tears dried and her face turned to stone. Anger was mysterious. It burned like a hole in her soul and yet she was calm, in complete control. It gave her control. Something she had never had.

"Rogue, please! Let me explain!" He was pounding on the door, and then it suddenly stopped.

Rogue picked up her suitcase, her mouth in a grim line as she wrenched the door open.

Bobby was standing their wide eyed, his shirt hurriedly tucked into his jeans, his hair in disarray and his face still flushed with perspiration. Kitty was leaning against the wall with her arms wrapped around herself. Her pink blouse was incorrectly buttoned, her belt was missing and she wasn't wearing any shoes.

Rogue noticed with some apathy that her large brown eyes had turned blood red with tears.

"Rogue! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry. What you saw was-"

"Don't talk to me, Drake." She said coolly, though her eyes flashed venom.

"God, Marie it was an accident we-"

Rogue's head snapped towards Kitty's sobs and her limited control snapped. Throwing down her luggage she screamed out the vented frustration she had pulsing within her for years.

"You're _sorry_? You're fucking sorry?" Rogue screeched.

Kitty flinched; she had never before heard Rogue's voice reach such a tremendously fierce tone. Bobby's eyes were wide with uncertainty.

"Y-you're supposed to be my best friend, Kitty! And you-you sneak behind my back and sleep with my boyfriend? And you're _sorry_? Y'all bettah be sorry! But it doesn't matter! It doesn't fucking matter!"

"Marie please!" Bobby stepped forward.

Rogue didn't know what came over her. It was not only her own rage but Logan's as well as several others building up within her.

She slapped him with a loud scream.

"Don't you dare call me that! Don't you dare! Ah thought y' cared, Bobby. Y' tol' meh it didn't matter if Ah couldn't touch you. Y' lied, lahke everybody Ah've ever known. My foster parents said they loved meh until they found out what Ah was. Wolverine said he'd stay and protect meh but he never stays. Xavier said he'd help me with m' powers but he can't! And you said you didn't need for meh to touch. And you," Rogue turned towards Kitty with eyes beginning to fill with tears.

"Y' said we were friends. Ah've had enough o' lies." Rogue picked up her suitcase.

Bobby stepped in front of her, his hands lashed out to push her suitcase away.

"Please! Rogue don't do this! It was an accident! Rogue!"

"Y' keep saying that," Rogue began, pushing him out of the way and walking with a redefined purpose, "but Ah don' believe y'. Should've seen the signs. Should've known."

Kitty sobbed and ran forward, both hands wrapped desperately around Rogue's forearm.

"Rogue! I'm so sorry. It was so stupid, please forgive me."

Rogue didn't listen. She was tired of listening. She unhooked the keys of the truck off the wall and threw her stuff in the back seat.

It was time to become her own person.

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**a/n: Read and review! Pleease!**


	2. Chapter One Naive

**A/N: Thank you all for reviewing! I'm sorry if it took so long for me to update but I was _really _unsure how I should proceed! It took me a long to decide how I was going to go about this, and I decided that I just couldn't spontaneously _change _movie Rogue into comic book/evo rogue. So instead I'm going to give her a little journey to find herself…**

**Oh! And yes this is rated _M, _for possible sex scenes, VULGARITY, and other stuff that's entirely inappropriate for anyone and everyone! This is the last warning I'm giving about this (though if anything gets _really _sexy I'll warn beforehand for the squeamish and modest among y'.)**

**This is probably going to be a really LONG chapter. I'm compacting about a year or so into this…**

**Please R/R and thanks for the support.**

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**

**  
Chapter One**

**Naïve**

_ "**T**hings don't always go as plan, but you'll always  
get where you need to go, even if it isn't where you __want to go.  
I realize that now."_

**

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.rogue.**

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**

Leaving the Institute was for the best.

I realize that now.

At the time I had been unsure and indecisive about what I was going to do, and then I realized that I only had one option: control.

It was my resolution, the remaining driving force of my life and I found myself desperate to achieve it.

I spent three days in a dingy hotel outside of Bayville, contemplating how I was going to attain that goal. I knew Xavier was probably aware of where I was, and that knowledge, at the time, did not bother me. I knew he would respect my need for distance.

On the second day of my stay; I turned on the meager television set and watched channels flicker before my eyes as I clicked the remote. I was using the money I had received from Xavier to pay for the rent, and though with the amount he had given me I could have stayed in a more _well of _hotel, I didn't know how long I would be out on my own.

As I flicked through the channels, a familiar pale, red haired face snagged my roaming attention, and I stopped to listen as the picture disappeared and the dark skinned reporter spoke.

"_McTaggart's research of the Mutant-X gene has given the scientific community a novel and clearer understanding of mutant kind. However, many protestors in Ireland believe that her harboring of mutants and experiments are extremely unethical and dangerous. The F.O.H, Friends of Humanity, have been picketing outside the walls of her laboratory for three days after her last article in the Scientific American, which stated-"_

I was transfixed. McTaggart…I had heard McCoy and Xavier speak of her before. McCoy had been extremely enthusiastic about her work, and Xavier had been less sober than usual when he spoke of her, an almost affectionate tone had reached his voice.

McTaggart, Ireland.

I had a new destination. I was assured with the optimistic mentality of the fairly naïve that she would be my salvation.

Things never go as planned; I was starting to realize that now. It took the last of Xavier's monetary assistance to get to Ireland and pay for a hotel room close to her laboratory.

I could have easily called Xavier and asked for more money, but I was furious with the idea. This was something _I _had to do. I _wanted _independence, and my pride was ushering me to learn how to survive, to attain my goal without the need for opulent surroundings and deep pockets.

Before Wolverine had picked me up, I was fully capable of taking care of myself.

Why would I not be able to achieve that now?

Of course I vaguely understood that this was entirely different. I had no money; I was in a different country surrounded by new sights and ideologies. I had no idea what I was doing. But I was assured I would find what I was looking for.

Ireland was new to me. For one, I didn't believe I had ever seen such _green _grass before, and the water was beautiful, the overhanging bridges were works of art.

I stopped now and then to sketch the bridges, to try and capture the beauty of the small, narrow streets of Dublin with oil pastels, and the charming mixture of red, green and yellow colors and shades that made the city come alive.

I spent two days in Dublin, until I was able to obtain an appointment with McTaggart. Dressing hurriedly in long gloves, jeans, a long sleeved ballpark shirt, scarf and cap, I was ready to push through the throng of mutants and protestors alike to be received into the wide gates of her laboratory.

McTaggart herself was a pale woman, with dark green eyes, bright red hair and a small trace of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She was dressed in a lab coat when I entered, her eyes were intent, and her hands were moving across the keyboard of a large mainframe computer, she mumbled to herself as she moved.

"McTaggart?"

She didn't notice me at first; she was too engrossed in the work before her.

"The DNA and RNA were completely _off. _It's as if the entire gene is a mutation of replication and-"

"Ms. McTaggart?" I called again loudly and shuffled backwards timidly as she finally looked up at me.

At first there was a moment of pure confusion and then sympathy as she bounded forward. She walked slowly but with energy in each step.

"Yesh? Something you need?" She asked in a heavy Irish accent.

"My-my name's Rogue. Ah, Ah wanted t' talk to y' b'fore."

"Oh yes! Rogue! If it's housing that you require I have plenty of room left-" She said absentmindedly.

"No. It's just-m' powers. You're the scientist with all the answers 'bout the mutant gene, and Ah thought…maybe y' could help me."

******  
OOO OO OOO**

Things don't always go as plan, but you'll always get where you _need _to go, even if it isn't where you _want _to go.

I realize that now.

McTaggart had offered residence for me if I needed it, and money, but I refused to accept either.

I was utterly disappointed when she told me she was incapable of a _cure _for the mutant gene, and I hardly listened to her explanations.

"It's like me trying to cut off the gene that makes my hair _red._ Even if I could, who knows what else would inadvertently be affected? What color could my hair be, genetically, other than _red_?" She stressed.

She did, however refer me to a scientist by the name of Raskalnikov, who was, at the present moment, trying to discover the "cure" for the mutant gene. I did accept the plane ticket she gave me to Germany, but nothing more.

On the plane ride I was rightly apprehensive.

What would I do when I got there?

How was I going to be able to find him?

McTaggart had tried to dissuade me from going.

"It's a dangerous journey for a girl. So far away, without any money or understanding of the language! It's not a good idea."

Once again my obstinacy prevailed my common sense.

I only had one luggage of suitcase. When I reached Moscow I sold several pieces of jewelry for the currency I needed for a hotel room. I would find Raskalnikov in the morning, or so I believed.

That morning I didn't know how I was going to survive without the knowledge of the indigenous language. The language barrier had never really occurred to me at first, and it was probing more of a problem than finding Raskalnikov. Though some of the people I met were capable of speaking English, they were either unwilling or incapable of giving me the information I sought.

In a week of trying to learn German I grew desperate, and one day, without premeditation, I slipped my gloves gingerly off my fingers. A passerby stumbled slightly as I brushed my hands against his exposed skin, just enough to get what I wanted.

The dark haired man gave me a surprised look before running off into the darkness.

"Yeah that's right," I said after him in perfect German, a bitter smile crossing my face, "I _am_ a monster."

I bustled up to my room, shaking away the remnants of his memory and cursing in German as I slid the key to my room.

Cold air came to greet me; I didn't even bother to take off my layers of clothing. The only thing about my situation I was enjoying was the ability to wear so much clothing without seeming conspicuous.

From the newspaper I bought earlier, I gathered all the information I needed about Raskalnikov, and learned that everything I had done was for naught.

He was dead, for almost more than two weeks.

I laughed when I read it. I had such bad luck from the beginning, with my life, with Cody, with my _powers. _

How did I expect to find any leeway?

The F.O.H had been protesting against his search for the "cure", and in an uprising of anger a tremendous mob had flooded the streets and burned down his apartment building with _him _in it.

I felt a wave of fear and a dark growing pain pulse in my chest.

It was in that moment, for the first time in my live that I realized I was screwed.

_Really _screwed.

I couldn't stop laughing, even as the tears came.

My psyches were acting up, probably do to my apprehension.

Three weeks had gone and left, and I was out of things to sell. My hotel was about to become too expensive for me to keep, thought it was the cheapest I could find. My expert understanding of the German language had left three days after I had acquired it, and I was plagued too much by moral qualms to do it again.

_You should have taken more money. This insensible idea will only get you so far if you're not willing to do what's necessary,_Magneto's psyche was whispering between my ears.

_Call Xavier, kid. He'll send you some money and you can go back to New York. _Wolverine.

_You tried, Rogue. But let's face it, how're you going to survive on your own on the streets? _Bobby.

_I've done it before. _John.

I clutched my throbbing head and gritted my teeth together. I wanted to pull their memories from out of my _skull. _I wanted their voices and personalities _gone. _

_SHUT UP! NOW!  
_

There was silence as I allowed myself to fall onto the rigid bed.

_If you're going to try and stay alive, Rogue. You're going to need to learn how, _Magneto spoke up cautiously.

I tried to ignore him.

_Use your powers. That's why you have them. You could get by if you'd only try to-_

_Shut up, Magneto! _

I jumped up and began to pace, something I knew I must have acquired from one of my many personalities.

"Ah don' want t' hurt people."

_This isn't about hurting people, Rogue. YOU were the one who refused to be helped by those who have freely given it. _Magneto.

"Ah jus' wanted t' do something fo' m'self fo' once!" I argued.

_Admirable, but stupid if you're not willing to pay for that independence. YOU were the one who was stubborn enough to want to find the answers alone. You got yourself into this idiotic and nonsensical situation and you're going to have to get yourself out of it! _

"Not if it means Ah gotta hurt people."

_You're a fool! This about survival! If you're not going to crawl back to Xavier than you need to learn how to get by! This isn't about hurting people! This is about living! And you know what you have to do! _

I felt like a child being scolded. I knew what he meant, using my abilities in order to support myself. But I was afraid of opening that door. If I started using my powers for self-gain, did that make me anymore like Magneto?

_You've been around Xavier too long, _A new voice interceded, and I realized with some surprise that it was Mystique.

_I don't remember absorbing you. _I told her, and I could feel her slow smile.

_It was a long time ago. When you were smaller. _

_I never had my abilities when I was smaller. Wait-you knew me back then?_

There was a sad chuckle.

_More than you know. But that's for another time, right now; you need to survive my dear. Forget about what Xavier has taught you. If you don't do this for yourself, you'll never have control over your abilities…._

That was what changed my mind.

Control.

_It's time to stop fearing your power, and accept them. _Magneto.

******OOO OO OOO**

I was no more than a common thief of mind and soul.

I learned German by periodic absorption of those I met in the street. I learned, over time, how to erase their memories and psyches from my mind, and eventually how to absorb only what I wanted from their minds.

Sometimes, when the goings got rough, I resorted to stealing. It was easy enough. I didn't know the rudimentary understandings of theft, so instead I pressed my exposed flesh to theirs, blocking their psyches from entering and knocking them unconscious and vulnerable.

I searched them for whatever I could find, use or sell.

It took a toll on me at first. I was tossed into turmoil. How would Xavier think of me? What would Logan think?

_Does it matter? _Mystique would say, and I would agree that it really didn't.

I was kicked out of my hotel eventually, and I became a vagabond of the streets. I stole my clothes, I slept under park bench when it wasn't snowing, and in homeless shelters when it was. My food came from various sources, usually stolen, sometimes paid for.

John was a great assistance, and was giving me tips every day about how to survive.

_Always keep a knife close to you when you're sleeping on the streets. _

I was a little perturbed by the idea of a weapon, but the psyches inside my head assured me it was entirely necessary. I actually _bought_ my first one, even though stealing had become a second nature. It was nothing more than a small blade that I kept hidden under my layers of clothing, but it did the trick.

I eventually got a job working at a bar. The pay was shit, but enough to keep me eating and sleeping underneath a roof, and the owner, Heinschkel, never asked about the legality of my being there in more ways than just _age. _

After six months of hell I had become use to my new life, and had learned to control my powers considerably. While I was still incapable of touch, I was able to change the rate of the absorption only slightly, and what I absorbed was entirely under my control.

Nevertheless, I was planning to leave eventually.

Probably to China or Tibet.

China had a psychological research program on mutants that I was looking forward to seeing, and Tibet was known for its plethora of methodology for controlling mutant powers through meditation.

I wanted to learn more about my abilities. But first I needed more _cash. _I was planning on hitchhiking and stowing away on trains as much as possible. I didn't have nearly enough money to get anywhere legally.

One Friday night I was cleaning up the bar, piling plates on top of my platter and washing off tables.

One of the regulars, Dvorak, lumbered in around closing time, his dark eyes were intent, and his speech was slurred-apparently he was drunk.

"Dvorak," I said evenly as I wiped my hands on my apron.

"We're closed." I motioned towards the empty bar and he nodded stupidly.

"I can see that," He said in clumsy German and ran into one of the tables.

"You need to _leave._" I snapped and began wiping another table.

He looked at me appreciatively, his black eyes roaming my body without discretion. Licking his lips he walked forward until he was a few feet away from me. I stopped and tensed as his hand played with a strand of my hair. His breath was polluted with beer.

"You're a pretty little thing. About how old are you?" He asked.

I wrenched away, slapping his hand away from me.

"Leave _now._" I said angrily.

"You're an American girl. I can tell. Never fucked an American girl before." He said and his hand trailed across my collarbone.

I was extremely repulsed and Mystique's psyche was stirring with an uncontrollable force.

"_No_? I bet you've fucked a boy though," I spat.

"You should learn some respect!" He grumbled and grabbed my wrist.

"I will when I come face to face with someone who deserves it,"

Something _snapped. _Wolverine's rage, or maybe Mystique's, or maybe mine, but I was _through _with this.

I removed my gloves, slowly before his eyes. He seemed amused by the gesture because he said and did nothing as he watched. I let them drop the ground and then my hand curled around the hand holding my wrist.

I concentrated and pulled _hard. _I had never wanted to intentionally hurt someone like this before, and when he screamed, the veins pulsing against his skin with a violence and pale coloring I had never seen before, there was a foreign glee that rose from his pain.

I kneed him in the gut and grabbed his shoulders. I propelled myself up and kicked him in the middle of his back. He cried out and fell forward over one of the tables. His hand flew out to try and catch me but I kicked him in the throat, sending him spiraling forward as he tried to suck in air.

I was using a variety of Wolverine and Mystique's techniques. They came to me as if I had been trained to use them all my life.

He elbowed me in the stomach and then kicked out, screaming _"fucking mutie" _in German at the top of his lungs. I growled and something pressed against my knuckles and then pushed violently out, the blood splattered against the floor.

They were three claws between my knuckles, like Wolverine's, except these were made of glistening bone drenched in my blood. (1)

I think I must have terrified him because he jumped up and began to run clumsily. I caught him easily, throwing him into a wall and pushing my claws through his shoulder without wincing. The bloodlust I was suddenly experiencing was _not _mine, neither were the heightened senses that smelled the copper tinge of his blood.

"Listen here, bub," I said, half in English, half in German, "You shouldn't treat a lady lahke that. She can get a little testy. Get me?"

I slammed my elbow into his face, and the nose made a distinct crack as he fell.

I withdrew the claws, wincing at the pain. Around me was a disarray of overturned tables, chairs and shattered objects, utter chaos incarnated. I knew that if I stayed any longer, not only would the damage be taken out of my cash, but I was going to have an anti-mutant mob on my hands.

I didn't need the sort of heat I knew I would get.

That night I sold my things and left to Tibet.

******OOO OO OOO**

**(1) **The idea about the bones coming out of her hands instead of adamantium was taken from a comic book where all the adamantium in Wolverine was taken out (I think by Magneto), and he began using his bones like claws instead.

Alrighty then! Rogue's going to be doing a little bit of traveling! But I'm not gonna write about all of it! (Unless you request it-then maybe if I feel like it.) But thank you everyone for reading and please review!

******Tanydwr: **Thanx for the support. I like cartoon Rogue too. So I was thinking I could do a little meshing and put them together!

**sheisbeautiful-sheisnotme**: I know what you mean. They just don't seem like a lasting relationship. I haven't really decided what shipper is going to come out of this (and even if I do get Rogue together with someone, it doesn't mean they won't break up later.) So keep your eyes open!

**DarkAngelmi818:** And so I will! My brain gets a little dizzy some times from all the work I dish out, but eventually it'll be worth it. :P

**Reanne1102:** I know. There really didn't seem to be that much chemistry between them. It was all…_blah. _Anyway! I want Rogue to have that spunk we all know and love!

**Reanne**

**Silent Murderess:** Thank you for the review! Please give more and sugar will be given. (Electronically)

**Jen: **Heh, I'm getting a lot of I HATE MOVIE ROGUE. It's almost like a club really. Thanks for the review. And yeah, Rogue's going out to find herself! I _do _wonder who she'll find. Evil cackle.

**Jen: **Thankie for the reviewie!

**oracale:** Yeah! You reviewed! Thank you!

**emma134**: Another I hate movie, I'm starting to see a pattern here…thanx  
**  
Anonymous Person**: Mysterious aren't you? But still thanx forthe review! And for reading it! These reviews show me how many people are interested and whether I should continue or not.

**aiecafaitmal:** Indeed. I'm going to have to bully the yellow belly out of her.

**lildevil0644:** Thank you. I really was trying to make this seem like it could happen in an Xmen movie. Centered around Rogue of course.

**Chica De Los Ojos Café**: Remy _might _make an appearance. I haven't decided if it's going to be a Romy shipper or something else yet….

**Chica**: Yup. Rogue snapping is extremely likeable. Thanks for the input. If I were to put the whole Phoenix saga in here, it would probably be almost entirely comic book based, which makes it extremely complicated. The X3 version was wacko.

******Inferno:** don't worry. I don't like the cheat and then get back together thing. I HATE it actually. So you don't have to worry about that. Though Bobby drooling over his ex is a lovely possibility. Especially if he's tortured by it. Mwahahahaha!


	3. Chapter 2 Everybody Hates Me

** Sorry I took so long. I'm going to be going back to work soon, and school, so I'll probably take even longer. I got to get ready for exams when I get back and all that etc., sigh.**

**A/N: FUCK! **Thanx nlb, I really messed up on that one. I didn't even realize I put Moscow instead of Berlin. The _problem _I believe, is that I was (and still am) reading the Brother Karamazov and decided to use the main characters name. I'm too lazy to fix it right now, sigh; I'll have to do something about that Moscow thing later.

But thank you for stopping me from changing not only a fic's timeline, but the geography of the whole world in the process! Heh.

If I do that again, somebody tell me please!  
**  
Well, let's continue….**

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Chapter Two**

******Everybody Hates Me  
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****

_"Are y' always yappin' this much? 'Cause Ah came hea fo' _

_something sparkling and _

_pretty t' sell, not t' hear y' talk my poor ears off all day." Rogue announced with a cat grin._

_"Death wishes like that will only get you killed, luv." Psylocke's right hand burst _

_into a long, flashing pulse of energy._

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**********One Year and Two Months Later….**

**********Tokyo, Japan**

********

**************OOooOOooOO  
**

The outfit was dark emerald and tight fitting. It hugged every curve in a thin layer of tight leather. Her hair was braided and tied back flat against her head, the black hood from her trench coat covered her hair from view, and the small, black sash she wrapped around her face kept her anonymous.

She rubbed her gloved palms together and licked her lips, her hair fell loose from its tight braid once more and she sighed as she pushed it back. She hadn't cut her hair since leaving the Institute-or bothered to try and straighten it. The auburn locks had grown past her waist in thick waves of velvet and soft silk.

It was times like these when it became cumbersome.

She waited on the building, her black bag of tools swung over one shoulder, a pair of binoculars swung from her neck.

A red Mercedes pulled up in front of the building in front of her, followed by four SUVs. Rogue crouched lower, watching for the prized object as the door of the Mercedes flew open.

She knew she was getting into more shit than she should have. The Kingpin was giving her enough cash to retire for the rest of her days if she accepted this job, and she was still not entirely sure she wanted to go through with it.

It was the _Hand, _for godsake.

She had heard of the Hand before. What foolish criminal in all of Japan _hadn't _heard of them? They ruled in their posh behind the scenes settings and enigmatic methodologies. Even the Kingpin knew better than to intrude with them on their own turf.

Their customary cash flow was in drug trade, counterfeit money and, above all else, their renown assassins. If you wanted a job done and done with the utmost precision, an assassin of the Hand was the most obvious choice.

From the files she had learned that the Hand wasn't trying to _steal _anything. They were transporting an object of extreme wealth, a silver and bejeweled dagger supposedly from the first ninja of the Hand. It was worth a fortune to the Kingpin, but to the Hand it was almost divine.

If she was caught she was in deep shit.

Death she could handle with a smile and a chuckle, but the things they would undoubtedly do to her would be undoubtedly beyond death.

The cars stayed stationary for three hours, and then left as stealthily as they had come. Rogue hesitated for a moment. The item would be in the warehouse, heavily guarded until it was transported to some unknown headquarters.

She would never have another chance like this.

**************OOooOOooOO**

She realized with some contempt that the Kingpin was setting her up.

It had crossed her mind before. She was the best, and _he _knew it, but she was also rash and reckless and not a devoted part of his organization. Therefore she was an unwanted liability.

He was trying to rise up in the world of crime, and this hit wasn't just for the money. It was for the recognition. Even if she failed, it would be known that the Kingpin was daring enough to rise against the Hand for the sake of money.

She was to be his unknowing martyr.

Except, that wasn't how this was going to happen.

They were good, she had to admit. She was shaking in her boots by the time she slipped passed the heavy security system, but when she absorbed the first guard their fate had been sealed.

The layout and booby traps of the building were flashing beneath her eyelids, and so were the ninja's massive training abilities.

Who knew they had such power? Such unrivaled abilities for regular human beings? And who was this Psylocke that kept flickering into his mind? She wasn't able to get any more about her whereabouts, because some strange sort of shadow block prevented her from accessing that part of his mind.

She was able to absorb the other two guards easily with the ninja's acquired skills and Mystique's abilities.

_These guys are good. Really good._

"And who is this?" A British voice called out in English.

Rogue turned around and was thoroughly surprised.

The woman was slender, pale and beautiful. Her Asian features were bold and angular, dark purple hair was pulled back in a braid.

She was regarding Rogue with something akin to amusement; her right hand was glowing incandescently.

"A little mouse. You did very well, I must say. Not many would even try to rob _us, _but you seem to be foolish enough to try," She said with a grin.

"What can Ah say?" Rogue replied back with a smirk and cocked eyebrow, "Ah've nevah been one fo' the yellow belly approach. Lahke t' have meh spot o' fun."

"So there's a girl under that hood. How interesting. How rude of me, I'm Psylocke."

"The name's Jade Fox," Rogue said with equal mocking politeness as they began to circle each other, looking for any signs of weakness.

"I've _heard _of you, always thought you were a little _boy_. You've been doing awfully well for a lone thief; you're almost as good as the Thieves Guild, but you're still an untrained, sloppy novice. You'll probably be yesterday's news in less than a week."

"Are y' always yappin' this much? 'Cause Ah came hea fo' something sparkling and pretty t' sell, not t' hear y' talk my poor ears off all day." Rogue announced with a cat grin.

"Death wishes like that will only get you killed, luv." Psylocke's right hand burst into a long, flashing pulse of energy.

Rogue blinked at first and then cursed under her breath as it turned into a glowing beam.

Damn.

She could use her acquired mutant abilities, but calling upon them took concentration and wore her out substantially. The more powerful the mutant ability, the more she was drained of her lasting energy, and Psylocke didn't seem the sort to be lenient.

"Well Ah say! Sure 'nough know how t' show a girl a good tahme. Ah'm always up fo' a little dancing m'self." Rogue dodged the swipe, the heat from the glowing hand tickled her cheek and she cursed as she realized Psylocke was aiming for her head.

"Y' tryin' t' behead meh? Ah thought you'd be the more of a guttin' 'em type,"

"I like to get things done right and proper, luv. Buggering things up with a slow death is not my style," Was the reply, and a well aimed kick lashed out.

The flurry of punches was met with a series of blocks. Rogue was suddenly glad for Mystique's diligent abilities and Wolverine's dirty style of fighting; she would never have been able to compete with Psylocke's quick and sharp death hits otherwise.

_Fuck. _

Rogue slapped away another kick and her knee shot out, abruptly kneeing Psylocke in the gut.

Psylocke grunted and blocked the punch aimed for her face, delivering a jab to Rogue's nose and another in her stomach.

"Lahke t' play do ya?" Rogue said, gritting her teeth against the pain.

She flipped backwards as Psylocke struck out with a rolling fist punch, and then dropped to the ground deftly, kicking out at her knees. Psylocke blocked the kick with a kick of her own, and then her glowing hand came crashing down.

Rogue dodged it and struck out with both fists at Psylocke head, knocking her forward and then pushing herself up for another blow.

"Alright, no more Mr. Nice Guy," Psylocke said with a grin.

"You were being nice? Bettah work on yo' people skills, sugah. That wasn't no where near _nice._"

Psylocke ignored her and a crate flew from one of the walls behind her.

"Fuck." Rogue cursed as it slammed into her gut.

"What the hell's in here? Bricks!" Rogue cursed as she fumbled to push it off.

Psylocke was there in an instant, her right hand poised with the brimming purple and pink energy as she slammed her fist down.

Rogue knocked her backwards with a telekinetic push and Psylocke's eyebrow cocked in surprise as she landed on her back.

"Well, you're full of surprises," She said with a small smile and lashed out.

"Do you ever _quit_?" Rogue barked and considered her options.

She could try and use more of her abilities, but Jean's stupid telekinesis on its own was too hard to properly control, and it was the most used and practiced of her abilities. _That _and Psylocke was wearing her out. She could try to grab her but that was pushing it.

She didn't have near enough the speed and agility of Psylocke, despite Mystique's fighting technique.

It looked like she would just have to gamble.

Rogue pulled off her gloves, allowing them to fall negligently to the floor as she tensed for the attack.

"You have no idea, shugah," She murmured and as the glowing hand came crashing forward she grabbed onto it with her bare hand.

The simultaneous screams shook the warehouse. The force of the absorption made Rogue's head pulse at the sudden, dizzying rush, and Psylocke fell down backwards, her glowing hand extinguished.

"You're one fucked up pup, luv," Rogue said looking at Psylocke's unconscious form with a shake of her head.

The psychic had two completely different and slightly fractured psyches in her _own _mind, which had suddenly become residents in Rogue's brain.

One was the initial owner of the body, Kwannon, and the other was Betsy Braddock, the English woman she had been speaking to.

Their combined, merged minds had become Psylocke, some strange, struggling amalgamation of the two, hardly capable of harboring both of their individual minds simultaneously.

The two fought and cursed for a moment, and Rogue hissed as she forced their voices away, she had a job to do. She pulled back on her gloves.

************

**************OOooOOooOO**

************

**One Day Later...**

Time and experience had changed her, both inwardly and outwardly. 

Walking the streets of Tokyo she was nothing like the woman she had been before.

Tall and graceful she seemed to float instead of walk. The long neck and slightly tilted inclination of her head suggested she was entirely self-confident and the way her deep crimson lips pursed hinted at her quick temper and brass. Her eyes were bold emeralds and deeply lashed, sparkling with flashes of gold and slight gray. Her current line of work had caused her to become extremely fit, better than she had ever been before. Her coke shaped form was accentuated by long, toned legs and lean thighs; her arms, when revealed, were molded into a perfect form as well, hinting at the acquired abilities she had obtained over the years through rigorous practice and devout determination.

She was wearing a leather, green bomber jacket, and fingerless yellow biker gloves. Underneath her jacket she was wearing a dark green, form fitting tube top that revealed her pierced navel. Tight, low cut light blue denim shorts were ripped along her back pockets and slightly along the front.

Here and there flashed jewelry from all over Europe.

On her left wrist was a sterling silver bracelet from Tibet, with beautifully done designs finished with carefully placed pieces of turquoise. Several jade bangles from China adorned her right wrist. A Japanese tattoo of a green, red gold and blue dragon crept up her arm, starting from her elbow where small wisps of smoke curled, and ending across her back where the wide and mysterious form of the dragon expanded.

She walked briskly through the large crowd of business suits and swinging suitcases. As the light okayed for pedestrians to move across she worked silently and diligently, hidden by the multitudes as she brushed her fingers lightly into several pockets.

She had learned a lot over the year. Germany had taught her that all she needed to survive was her brain, her hands, and black toast and beer to keep her mind off the weather.

Tibet had taught her that sometimes she would have to learn how to be _without _the ideal amenities she had once taken for granted: a roof being one of them, stolen food that didn't taste like raw meat being another and of course, her favorite, the wonders of how far your legs can take you without passing out.

After an incident in Tibet she had been practically chased down by an anti-mutant mob and then hunted down for weeks like some sort of animal.

When they came after her, she was still slowly learning how to control her mutant abilities. If she hadn't forced herself to use Logan's mutant powers she would have been dead. She still had nightmares about fire and screams-the helplessness she faced then was the closest to death she had been since leaving the Institute.

More hapless occasions would follow.

She had gone to China after. The grand research she had looked into was insightful, and from the borrowed minds of the scientists there she was able to decipher the terminology thrown flippantly around during the lecturers.

Her powers had grown over time.

She found she could keep the knowledge of the absorbed as if they had been her own, if she so pleased. The once hard task of calling upon memories and knowledge from her psyches was in the past, and her gradual control over her powers made her hopes soar with the idea of one day finding her control

She slipped the cash into her pocket, throwing the wallets slyly into a passing trash can. The credit cards were of no use to her, they only attracted unwarranted attention and documentation of her whereabouts.

She pulled up her sleeve up and looked at the time, the stolen silver watch relayed her promptness and she nodded to herself as she searched the narrow street for the sushi restaurant.

The smell of raw fish was augmented distastefully by Logan's powers, and she hurriedly flipped them off as the smell became atrocious.

Her eyes rolled over the black haired crowd and noticed the pair of curiously eyes watching her from the corner.

He was a small Japanese man, with a small smile and lovely dark black eyes. His features were handsome and thin and for a moment-as he stood slowly up to greet her, his tight black shirt covering the lean expanse of his chest-she remembered the perfect, naked contours of his chest and abdomen underneath.

He bowed slightly, grinned widely, and performed wonderfully for inquiring onlookers.

"Kiyoto," She said in a perfect Japanese accent, her voice loud enough for anyone to hear.

"Akari," He said in the same informal manner.

The fake names were another part of their show. They needed to prevent the authorities or enemies from paying the any close mind. Business was always less likely to be suspicious when it was right under someone's nose.

Rogue retrieved dark green Burberry glasses with tinted apple green lenses and shoved them onto her nose as she looked at the menu with fake interest.

"What did you want to talk to me about, Seiji?" She said softly, using his real name and never looking up at him.

Seiji gave her a weary look, and then turned his attention to the menu as well.

"You know what, Rogue. That stunt you played on the Hand. You know better than to steal something from us on our own turf. Matsu'o wants you dead. You need to leave Japan, Rogue. I would recommend you return the jewel you stole and leave,but even if they get it back, I'm sure they'd want you dead for humiliating them like you did." He snapped.

Rogue smiled ruefully.

"You're so cute when you're angry," She whispered in English and winked.

Seiji sighed.

"What did you steal from them in the first place?"

"The Dagger of Truth," She said flippantly.

"WHA-?"

A waiter passed by their table politely inquiring their wishes and nodding all the while. Rogue smiled in amusement at the contained anger and surprise Seiji was keeping at bay. The only suggestion that he was anything but pissed was the constant twitch of his lips.

When the waiter left his eyes fell quickly upon her.

"You stole the Dagger of Truth? That thing's practically sacred. The first assassin of the Hand was said to have used that dagger to secure his position. It's legendary. Rogue-you-I-are you suicidal? Is that it?" He hissed.

"The Kingpin wanted it, and he was willing to give me a pretty penny for it, so I obliged. I've been getting better business because of it as well. Everyone wants a piece of the Jade Fox now."

"Rogue, look, I'm your friend, okay? And when I got you set up with the Kingpin, I didn't think you'd get as far as you have in six months." Seiji said in Japanese.

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is that I don't want you dead, Rogue."

"I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself."

"Rogue, I suggest you take care of yourself. I suggest you leave."

"Why would I leave? Ah've just gotten started." Rogue retorted.

Seiji sighed and ran his fingers through his deep black locks of hair.

"Rogue," His hands cupped hers on the table, his lips pursing in restraint.

Rogue started to pull away but stopped when he made it clear he was willing to make a scene.

"I care for you, okay?"

"Seiji-"

"Why're you like this? You take on every job, no matter how dangerous it is. Every risk you make it worse, and every possible attempt on your life you think is a game. It's not a game. Rogue, please, listen to me. I don't know what's happened to you in the past, but you've got to stop doing this to yourself, and I'm not just talking about the Hand."

"What are you talking about then?" Rogue asked wearily.

"Everything. Like us. I told you that I lov-"

"Seiji-!" She warned.

"-ed you and you run away from me. You stop returning my calls, you say it's over but I can see in your eyes that you feel something."

"I told you from the beginning I don't make commitments, not to anyone. And I don't believe in love, Seiji. It's just an emotion." She whispered and looked away.

The flicker of anger crossed his face once more and he shook his head.

"I love you,"

"It doesn't matter."

Seiji cupped her face, forcing her to look up at him and lightly placing his forehead to hers.

"I love you, I've never loved before you. And you know that's more than just an emotion."

She saw it in his eyes, the need, lust and love wrapped within them. And for a moment she breathed in everything about him-the smell of his cologne, the way his skin felt hot against hers, the black tendrils of hair threatening to distort her peripheral vision. And then she looked up once more and saw her face in the darkness of his eyes and shook her head, moving away

"I've been down that road before, Seiji. It's covered in tears and ends in regrets. I don't want anymore regrets, not now."

Rogue sniffed and threw some cash on the table.

"I'm leaving, it's been lovely but I should go."

"Rogue-"

"If things are as you say they are, then you should forget about me, Seiji. For your own good."

She walked away from him, and he could do nothing but watch her go.

Rogue sighed and pulled her black and green Harley up, looking one more time at the restaurant before running both hands through her hair. The Harley had a few scrapes and dents that she would have to take care of, but she was willing to do so. It was a precious possession, they'd been through a lot of near-death experiences together, and its speed and sturdy hold had saved her more times than she could remember.

Rogue pursed her lips, considering bringing the Kingpin the artifact.

She shook her head, Wolverine mumbled something incoherently, and a few others agreed.

Rogue revved up the engine.

Get a drink first, and then go to the Kingpin

**************OOooOOooOO**

Psylocke was pissed when she woke up.

Her head was plagued with a migraine the size of Texas, and the knowledge that she had failed came flickering into her mind.

_Damn._

It was Kwannon who took over then. With a sigh and click of her teeth she pulled out her cell phone, prepared to explain her situation to her husband.

It didn't matter however, she'd find that _bitch _soon enough.

**************OOooOOooOO**

**Three Hours Later**...

"Ah got yo' little artifact, luv, now give meh my money." Rogue said decidedly.

_This is stupid. _

Usually she would have never come to the Kingpin's office, but she needed to get rid of the dagger before the Hand decided to trace her to it. _And _she needed her money then and _there; _she would need to get the fuck out of Dodge before morning.

The Kingpin gave her a surprised look, he wasn't sure he cared for an explanation on how she got into the building.

He was dressed in a white suit with a red tie and two gold rings. His head was bald and his features were round and square. He had a sly intelligence about him, as well as a cruel savage appearance that she had witnessed on more than one occasion. 

"We received it, but I must discuss some things with you first," He said simply, his massive form pushed back in his seat.

"And what the hell would that be? Bettah be 'bout something green and spendable, 'cause Ah did everything y' asked."

"And so you did, but you see, Rogue, that's not enough." The Kingpin said simply and pressed a button under his desk.

At least ten armored guards slid from secret compartments in the walls like action figures from a package, their guns clicked as they raised them appropriately, cold eyes glared.

Rogue clenched her teeth in exasperation.

"People are just _royally _screwing me today. Ah can't b'lieve y' trying t' pull one ovah on meh. Ah'm the best thief you got."

"And so you are, but I must put your skills aside. You are reckless, almost suicidal. Your professionalism is _naught_ and a hindrance to me. Especially since your refusal of allegiance has made your dealings with others as well as myself a possible danger to me. If you align yourself with me, now, however, the precariousness of your situation will be disregarded, and your money promptly given with a bonus."

Rogue's fingers twitched for the pistol insider her coat.

"Why you sneaky son of a bitch! Ah ain't gonna do nothin' Ah don' want t' fo' no body! 'Specially not f'r y'! You fat _pig_! Ah'd rather gut m'self." Rogue spat.

"We could easily rectify your discomfort," Was his reply.

Rogue assessed the situation.

From whatever point of view, she was bound to be severely hurt.

"So, is that your final answer?" The Kingpin joked, and Rogue smiled.

"Not nearly," Her pistol was out in only a moment.

She fired with dead intent, and the Kingpin dodged, throwing himself clumsily from his chair. The guards fired simultaneously, a barrage of unending bullets that clacked against Rogue's raised telekinetic shield.********

_Fucking machine guns! Who the hell gave them machine guns???_

_This is what I get for being such an arrogant idiot._

"Ms. Rogue, I never realized you were a mutant. Interesting..." The Kingpin said amused, looking on with a confident smile.

Rogue's powers had never been her primary means of defense, due to the strain they caused on her physically. The greater the power, the more energy it required to use it, and the more she found herself weakening and incapable of using any other.

Which was why the situation was extremely difficult.

Jean's shield was helping, but she would have to strain to use any other power to help her. If she used too many at one time and with too much effort, she was risking using her abilities to their extent and leaving herself vulnerable.

She couldn't risk using any other power of a massive proportion.

She was tempted to use Magneto's, but she knew his abilities would probably give her a nose bleed and put her in a coma in no time. She had always been to scared to risk using powers of a higher level mutant.

_ I'm so fucking screwed over.  
_  
Rogue hissed and looked at the window to her right.

The black night and twinkling neon lights of Tokyo stared back at her, and a sudden idea crossed her mind.

A stupid and dangerous idea that made her consider what Seiji said about her being suicidal.

"I would reconsider my offer if I were you, Rogue," The Kingpin said nonchalantly.

Rogue bared her teeth and gave him the bird.

Swearing profusely she turned and as the shield came down great white wings sprouted from her back in a flurry of blood and white feathers. She flipped backwards and through the glass window of the office in one fluid motion. The glass exploded around her******** cutting through her skin and flinging blood as she flew.

The shield had taken a substantial amount of her energy away, and keeping Angel's wings moving was already a hassle. Several bullets hit the air and she cursed as she panicked and began to clumsily dodge them, unused to having large wings and the necessary back muscles to support them.

Three of the bullets pierced her newly formed right wing, and two pierced her back.

Rogue clenched her teeth and tried to keep flying, but she was falling fast, and another shot-this time through her left wing-sent her spiraling down towards the earth. Glass from the window fell down with her like an ominous cloud as she fell to the sidewalk below with a horrendous _crack._

With a curse she fell onto her side, her elbow smashing against her ribs and her skull cracking against the pavement. Her right leg was positioned in an awkward, gruesome angle underneath her, and she almost screamed at the combined pain flowing through her. Breathing in she pulled on all the energy she had left to heal herself.

She thought she was going to die.

She laid there for a moment in utter agony, shaking pieces of glass from her hair and almost screaming as her bones shifted back into place.

Her broken leg began to heal first, and then her ribs and the twisted wrist. A bleeding gash that had brushed against her cheek closed up quickly, and she found herself getting up slowly.

Sore, tired and aching but without broken bones.

"Almost didn't get out o' that one-"She mused to herself, looking around for an escape route.

_Wack!_

Rogue cried out as something came smashing into her chest, pushing her backwards a few feet onto the pavement.

"Goddamn it! What the hell did Ah do t' deserve this?!" Rogue cursed.

Rogue rolled forcefully out of the way as a high heeled boot came crashing down towards her head.

"Ello, luv. Nice little fall y' had there." An Asian face peered down at her, the lovely features marred by a thin purple scar across her face.

Purple hair cascaded down her shoulders and onto a black, skin tight suit.

Rogue noticed, with a groan, that her right hand was pink and glowing incandescently.

"Fuck! _You _again. Y're lahke a shark, nevah lettin' go!" Rogue hissed and pushed herself up as fast as her protesting body would allow.

You've gotten yourself into quite the situation, Mystique was musing.

I can see that. Rogue barked back.

Rogue stumbled onto her feet and peered into the darkness.

For a moment she saw nothing and wondered about the stability of her current mind, and then a flash of purple caught her eye.

Cursing she was flung back into the wall of a building as an uppercut launched her sideways.

"Goddamn it! Are you invisible o' something?" She hissed clutching the stone wall and moving into a defensive position.

"I am actually. It's a little trick I learned." Psylocke reappeared, this time illuminated in the light of a street lamp.

She delivered a roundhouse kick that Rogue barely missed, and then lashed out with a series of quick, deadly punches-several of which, Rogue noticed, were aiming for major arteries.

I'm in deep fucking shit.**********_

* * *

_**

**************Hope you liked! Rogue's been getting into a lot of trouble it seems! It took me a while to come up with this chapter and edit it and redit it, so if there are any mistakes or inconsistencies tell me. Also, I was having a sudden writer marathon, and the next two chapters were really planned out to flow smoothly from this one. Sorry it took me so long to post again! review please so you can get the next chappie!  
**

**************Oh, and let's just pretend that Rogue somehow absorbed Jean during her stay at the mansion. **

**************And if I decide to use other powers of theirs, let's _keep _pretending. **

**************Tell me what you like, I've already got some more up and coming because I'm gonna be away soon, but I need to make some changes, etc., so all of them might not get posted so soon.**

**********PetiteDiable  
Soon! But first I gotta get a little…complication into the mix.**

**********firefairy032003   
I'm thinking about it, but this is _Rogue's _life after all, she can break up as easily as she can hook up. Nothing in this fic is definite, so be prepared for possible disappointment. Because I'm kinda evil like that.**

**********nlb**

**********Thank you for showing me my slip up! There will be more and they will be worse, but it's always nice to know I've got reviewers putting in their observations, even if I don't feel like going back and changing it.**

**********Cleopatra-2012  
Thank you! I will update!**

**********unearthlyangel89  
Thanks, you'll probably be seeing more of the combo in two more chapters or so…we'll see.**

**********QueenNarca  
Heh, everyone thought she was whimpy, and useless, and a thorn in Wolverine's side but-no more! I have given her a life of her own! And her rightful personality. The psyches just like to keep her company.**

**********aiecafaitmal  
I really am HAPPY that you logged in!**

**********emma134  
I'm going to!**

**********Crazywolf13  
There will be sooner than you know! The more reviews the get, the more passionate I am about dishing out a quick and _good _chappie.**

**********Moon&Stars   
Oh, I don't know…we'll see…**

**********whitemoonflower   
She'll bring havoc, though I'm not sure if that'll be as an enemy or as a new arrival. Probably a "new" arrival.**

**********Rageful Jewel  
And thusly  
why we have the I HATE MOVIE ROGUE CLUB.  
Celtic Cross  
Your enthusiasm gives me phenomenal writer's block choppin' power.**

**********Reanne1102  
Thanks, I wanted her to really go out in the world and all that etcetera and become something we could all be proud of. Sniffel.**

**********Thanagarian Angel  
I was actually thinking about the possible John thing, but I'll see…  
ishandahalf  
So far everyone's begging for a Romy pairing!**


	4. Chapter Three Survivor

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've been busy, and I'm on a veryshort break punctuated by setting up events and the like. Ugh, life and work suck. School sucks. **

**Anyway, thanks everyone for their comments. It really made me think about some things...**

**If there is a pairing (as Rogue is in a very tough situation about commitments) then it might be whatever pairing situates my fic. **

**Could be anyone actually...**

**Mwahahahaha...**

**Oh and wow, with just a prologue and two chappies I've got 51 reviews, 4612 hits! Very pleased about that!!!!**

**Oh, and some mentions of X2 are in here. As I'm trying to view this as a sort of alternative movie, I haven't exactly spelle dout some of what I thought were obvious signs pointing to the movie, so if you're confused about anythign just tell me and I'll explain.**

**The Hellfire Club and Creed are not apart of the movie so don't worry.**

**Oh, and this chapter isn't as long as it would have been because I just wanted to kind of wrap up this year in a small bundle. So if anything is confusing do tell, I've tried to make it as compact as necessary without losing necessary parts. But there is a lot of stuff going on in this year.**

**Chapter Three **

**One Year And Some Odd Months Later...**

**London, Britain...**

He was sitting there with his hands wringing together, his eyes moved from each exit and his lips were pressed together as he spoke apprehensively.

"They say," He was saying slowly to the group, his eyes wide and almost too comical in their fright.

"They say she went insane. They say one of those muties fucked her up real bad, did some sort of psychic blast on her or something and she's been off ever since."

"That's wha' I 'erd from d' boss man too." The other, more heavier one of the bunch said.

He was biting down on a wad of gum heavily, and sloshing a half gone bottle of rum in his right hand while he steadied the cards on the table with his left.

The game had been playing for an hour or so.

The group were composed of amateurs, mostly new recruits at the lowest level of the Hellfire Club.

Mere minions whose deaths would not be viewed as significant.

The ease of which they could be rid of was the only reason why they were currently meeting up with the legendary Inner Circle Members-the White Queen, and her protege, the infamous Jade Fox.

The White Queen was a prominent figure within the Hellfire Club.

Her rank was held behind the Black Queen and King, both of whom controled the powerful London branch of the prestigious, secret organization with an iron fist and watchful eye.

Both of whom were too powerful, in both their mutant abilities and current standing with the rest of the Inner Circle to be dealt with currently. It would take a lot of time to become rid of them.

But the White Queen was diligent and patient.

The garage door to the abandoned building suddenly flew open.

A stream of moonlight streaked in, and the small lights they had flickered out.

There came a moment of shared fright, and then the lights came back on again.

This time a woman clothed in pure white, with platinum blonde hair, exquisite features and blue eyes filled with malice appeared.

She was wearing a white dress with white heels and pearls around her neck. Her hands were gloved with white satin, and her coat was one of pure white fur and silk.

In her right hand she was languidly holding a silver gun, as if the object were nothing more than a purse or accompanied accessory to her person.

"Boys," She said with a perfectly arched brow raised towards the ceiling.

She could be no other than the White Queen.

They all stood hurriedly and with a level of fright.

She laughed and turned to look over her shoulder.

A tall, slender figure was standing there. Her curves were perfectly shaped, her movements were slow and deliberate, as graceful and predatorily alert as a cat's. She had a face of gold skin, with large green eyes and round ruby lips.

She was beautiful but younger than expected.

She was barely bordering on the age of eighteen.

She was wearing a tight dark emerald tank top, a brown bomber jacket and tight black jeans.

Her auburn hair of unruly curls fell to her hips.

A pair of yellow gloves with the inside palms cut out were stuffed in her back pocket.

She walked slowly into the building, her eyes flashing with a myriad of emotion before turning on each one of the men with interest and skepticism.

As her head turned, a rugged, dark purple scar (like the color of a bruise) became visible. It began at the tip of her eye and moved upwards towards her skull like a jagged lightening bolt in a diagonal direction.

"This will work," She said slowly and turned towards the White Queen with a nod.

"Alright then, boys. You know what to do." The blonde woman replied and they stood up.

It was going to be a long day.

Rogue moved the blade across her fingertips.

The bejeweled hilt glinted and the curved, silver blade seemed like tempting silk as it brushed against her wrist.

_Come on now..._ a voice goaded, and Rogue twitched as she pushed it back.

_That won't do...press it harder..._another purred.

"Shut up." Rogue snapped.

The men in the car turned towards her in surprise.

They hadn't been speaking.

"Well go in already." Rogue spat at them, her mood instantaneously changing from depressed to out of character rage.

They nodded, picked up their guns and piled out of the car.

Emma Frost turned to her young protege and grimaced.

She had learned to read Rogue rather well in the year and some odd months they had spent together, and the expression of pain and confusion that was twisting the young girl's face suggested she was having problems with her psyches once again.

"Rogue, ducky-Rogue?"

She slipped one hand cautiously over Rogue's wrist.

Rogue roared with an inhuman ferocity, and her eyes turned yellow with flickers of red.

Her hand pulled back, curling into black talons and she slashed down at Emma.

Emma cursed and her skin became diamond, impenetrable to Rogue's suddenly animalistic antics.

"Goddamn it, luv! You know I can't use my telepathy with this skin! Rogue-fuck-Rogue! Don't do this to me now!" Emma snapped.

Rogue suddenly blinked and her eyes turned bright green as she moved back into her seat with an expression of pure horror.

"Ah-Ah'm sorry, Emma."

"It's all right, Rogue."

"It's just Ah can't-Ah...Ah can feel them now, like they're apart of meh, y'know? It's like Ah'm not Rogue sometimes anymore, it's like Ah'm someone else." Rogue hissed.

"Psylocke fucked you up bad, luv." Emma said slowly.

"I fucked her up worse, darlin'." Rogue said simply and snorted.

"I wouldn't say that."

"Dead is definitely worse." Rogue said quietly.

Emma sighed and rolled her eyes in outright irritation.

"So you killed her? Who cares? She attacked you, luv. Act of preservation." Emma said with a snort.

"Is this an act of preservation?" Rogue asked with a hiss, jabbing her finger at the looming building.

Emma chuckled and shook her head in hysterical delight.

"No, this is just fun. Let them do all the work. That's what they're there for. "

"That's not what I meant, Emma. Ah don' know what the hell Ah'm doing now a days. This is ridiculous! Ah ain't the type o' person to do stuff like this. Ah stole yeah, because Ah needed to make a living but this-!"

Emma chuckled and cupped Rogue's face in her hands. Her pale face and shining blue eyes were alive with amusement and boredom.

"You've stolen, you've killed you've lied you've cheated. Now stop trying to act coy and fuckin' deal with what you've become ducky. You're not at the Institute anymore, luv."

Rogue pulled herself away from Emma's cold hands with a look of pure abhorrence and irritation-at Emma and herself.

"Thanks a lot Aunt." She spat.

"You're welcome."

An alarm sounded.

The flash of red lights across the grounds and the whistle of police officers suddenly sounded.

The area became surrounded by police officers and the click of weapons could be heard in the distance.

Emma and Rogue listened intently from their safe place on the curb, some ways away from the prison camp.

The commotion could be heard echoing outside.

_"Prisoner break." _Someone was yelling on the speakers.

Rogue glanced at the prison and sighed, boith hands pushing through her hair in exasperation.

What was she now?

Nothing like what she had been- a sniveling, sensitive little girl with no backbone.

But she was also a murderer, a liar and seemed to have entirelly circumvented the once moral upbringing and resolute beliefs she had based her life upon.

It was about self preservation now.

And as much as she loathed herself, she knew, despite what she said, that she'd learned to deal with it.

This was what she was and what she would always be now.

A survivor.

"There she is." Emma said pointing someone out in the ruckus.

She was pointing at a tall, dark skinned man with brown eyes.

He was a police officer, with a raised gun and confounded expression.

He mumbld something to one of the other men, laughed, and then walked away from the scene with his gun clutched tightly in one hand.

Emma snickered and rolled down the window, waving at the man with a wide grin.

A flash of recognition pressed upon his face, and then he was walking straight for the car, practically ripping the door open as he entered.

"Your people the one who started that ruckus?" He asked, though his voice was pleasant enough his face seemed to be harboring irritation.

Emma nodded.

"Yeah. They're probably dead by now," She retorted and then snorted arrogantly, turning to Rogue.

"Rogue, aren't you going to say hi?"

The man turned towards Rogue in surprise-the brown eyes became gold as the car began to move.

The skin rippled and became blue scales, the jet black hair dark red hair that had grown since Rogue had last seen her.

"Hi...mother." Rogue said slowly, and narrowed her eyes at Mystique

"Mother?" Mystique furrowed her brow, and a sudden look of complete anger washed across her as she turned to Emma with a murderous expression.

"My children are dead! How dare you play games w-"

"Hush, sister." Frost hissed and pushed the angered blue woman back into her seat.

"Suck me, Frost. What do you want? I haven't seen you since our father died." Mystique spat.

Frost huffed.

"Listen, Raven, I got you out of there, you might as well shut the fuck up for a moment." Frost said pleasantly, with a majestic arrogance that seemed to make Mystique even more enraged.

"Then speak!"

"Magneto lied to you about your children Mystique. Wagner didn't kill them when he found out they were mutants. Magneto just wanted you to believe that so you would turn against your husband and human kind in general. Baron Wagner might have hated mutant kind, but he didn't have the balls to kill his own children. He placed them in adoption agencies."

Mystique stared at Emma blankly, and then screamed in rage.

She seemed like a sudden, deadly animal as her fist punched the seat behind her and her teeth bared and her yellow eyes narrowed into feral sliits.

"That two timing sonofabitch! He tricked me! He tricked me! I-I could've let you die I could've-" She turned to Rogue with a look of mixed awe and sadness.

"Marie, I'm sorry. I didn't know. The bastard tricked me. And then he left me there, after I saved him from the Cure. He left me human and naked to be humiliated and imprisoned. He left me. But my powers came back. They came back." She added almost frantically.

Rogue sighed.

She possessed some form of sympathy for the woman.

After all, she had her in her mind, and after the encounter with Psylocke-her psyche was just as hard to control as the others.

Silently Rogue brushed her hand over her mother's face.

Realizing the lips were the same.

The eyes, though darkened gold, were the same in shape and intensity, and the feelings were the same in all respects as well.

They had both loved once, with all their being and naive understandings.

And they had been betrayed and born anew because of it.

They were the same in some respects, not just in blood.

"And you didn't want to break her out," Emma said with a small snort as usual.

"Stop reading my goddamn thoughts!" Rogue cursed.

"Then stop projecting them."

**FLASHBACK**

The battle with Psylocke had shattered her.

Psylocke had plummeted her psy-katana into Rogue's brain, and it felt as if she were melting from an overload of nerve impulses. Rogue did the only thing she could do, reached out and grabbed Psylocke's face in both hands.

They screamed together, and Psylocke's blade finally stopped.

Not before leaving Psylocke in a vegetative state.

And not before the goddamn combination of Psylocke's psychic abilities, and Rogue's acivation of her powers caused a lasting consequence.

At first it was not noticeable.

Then as time grew on, she found herself remembering things-things she later realized she had never done. And the memories came pouring into her as if they were all her own. And then came the voices of the psyches once again, only to die down with their personalities.

For a while, she was a shattered thing, insane and uncontrollable, harboring different people in one form and losing herself in the expanse of their minds.

She ravaged the streets of Japan for three days, moving in and out of personas-Magneto, Warren, Mystique-.

And then they came.

S.H.I.E.L.D

They appeared in black uniforms with raised guns and special orders.

To capture her and bring her back to their base.

Still plagued with memories and personalities, she fought them like an animal, but her crazed form of mind was her downfall.

She was captured by clever tactics, and taken to their headquarters.

She was put under the supervision of Col. Wraith, a cruel man who hated mutants and had no qualm with showing his hatred.

They kept her drugged constantly, to keep her powers in control.

And in between their tests of her abilities, which were tiring and long and rigorous, sometimes excrutiating-

Wraith would ask her questions about her time spent in Japan.

"We know who you are," He would say, smoking a thick cigar and blowing the smoke into her face.

"Jade Fox,"

In her shattered mindd the name had some familiarity, but Rogue couldn't hold onto the memory long enough before another washed it away.

"The Hand? What do you know about the Hand?" He snapped.

"I don't remember...I don't-" Her speech patterns shifted in preferred dialect and sometimes varied in language.

"Don't fucking play with me mutie, you killed one of them, and supposedly stole from them as well. What the fuck do you know about them?"

Rogue felt her apprehension rise and then fall into someone's else's anger.

"What the fuck does it matter to you, bub?" She growled.

He snorted.

"The Hand is an illegal organization, with numerous crimes that must be accounted for. I plan to rid this world of them, along with your inhuman kind. Either you help me do so, or you face the consequences."

She ended up facing the consequences.

He starved her first.

For a week she was given no food and only some water.

Her throat was dry, her movements were weak and trembling, and she vomited bile and slept throughout the day.

Then one morning he fed her a grand dinner, waited and asked the questions again.

When she was unable to respond he nodded and she was taken away.

The next morning he questioned her again.

"Are you sure?" He asked quietly, deadly.

"Ah don't remember, Ah can't remember anything please Ah-"

"You're lying. All muties lie." He spat, and Rogue screamed as she was held down.

A doctor came into the room, his eyes seemed full of fear and horror.

"Jesus, I'm sorry." He whispered to Rogue, and she screamed as he steadied her lips and pressed a needle against them.

Crying and preventing himself from looking away from his work he stitched her mouth shut as she screamed..

Wraith laughed throughout the event, his eyes filled with sadistic pleasure.

"If you won't tell the truth, then don't speak!" He had barked.

Rogue's nightmares were filled with the hours and days spent there.

If Frost had not rescued her when she did...

God-she owed Frost her life and her sanity.

Emma helped her piece together the falling pieces of her mind.

The problem however was that Psylocke had not triggered a reaction of psyches, but destroyed the mental walls that held them at bay. In effect, the psyches began to blend, enveloping Rogue's own mind with their presence, become almost impossible to separate from her true mental being.

It took a week before Rogue was back to normal-whatever normal was.

Especially after being tortured for months by Wraith.

She still retained, now and then, traces of certain personalities that couldn't be completely removed.

Wolverine's 'darlin'' and insistence on a cigarette, Magneto's hatred of humans sometimes came about abruptly, Sabertooth's bloodlust and other certain traits of her psyche became apart of her.

Sometimes she lost control, and became consumed by the psyche, but that began to occur in dwindled amounts, almost to the point where she had full control over herself.

Almost.

Frost had saved her, brought her to be her protege in London, the most powerful branch of the Hellfire Club.

Th second branch being New York.

In some way, she felt a need to protect her Aunt.

Emma had revealed Rogue's true origins, proved it by accessing Mystique's memories with her.

She'd helped her with the psyches and her control over their personalities, she'd even given Rogue a position in the Inner Circle as Knight.

Emma had plans, grand plans to take on the title of the Black Queen, and eventually to get Sebastian Shaw, the Black King out of the way.

But it would need to be handled delicately. The organization was powerful, branching into a myriad of smaller organizations of illegal dealings.

She would need to control those first, to gain loyalty and power in case she would need to overcome the Inner Circle by force.

But Emma was as vulnerable as she was cruel.

The white haired woman could be vindictive and conniving, but she was the result of her father's dogmatic hold over her, and her own need to escape from both him and the animosity of mutant haters.

The bond between them had grown, and Rogue didn't want Emma getting herself killed.

Somehow the woman had begun to mean the world to her.

She would do anything to keep her safe.

And Frost knew it.

She knew it as easily as she knew that she would do the same for her niece.

So when the young girl, only eighteen now, woke up screaming in horror-from the nightmares of her own torture and someone else's, all Emma could do was soothe her and feel a certain awe wash over her being.

How could one girl survive so much in such a short time?

**Two Days After the Prison Break**

"We shouldn't have just left those guys there like that, Emma. It wasn't right it was-"

"Shut the fuck up! I'm tired ofyou yammering about some lives that don't matter. I'm trying to watch television, ducky." Emma said pleasantly enough.

She liked her dear niece, but sometimes her battles with her sense of "morality" were repetitive and uncalled for.  
As well as childishly farfetched.

Life was life.

"But-"

"They're in the hands of the authorities. Just like we planned. It looks just like a regular stir up among the prisoners with every possible suspect rounded up and no idea of outside influence. No one will be looking for us, and most importantly, the Black Queen and King won't take another glance at this event. We don't need them questioning our actions." Emma yawned and stretched.

"Where the hell is-Goddamn it, Emma!" Mystique snapped and forced open the door.

Emma sighed and pointed.

Mystique picked up the machine gun and gave it a light pat before smiling in a moment of eery, soft tranquility.

"She'd have sex with it if she could figure out which part would fit best." Emma whispered to Rogue.

"Don't talk to my daughter that way!" Mystique snapped and pointed the gun at Emma threateningly.

Emma smirked.

"See how she waves it about like that. Makes her feel like she's holding a great, big, powerful metallic di-"

"Why do you always have to push me, Emma?" Mystique snarled.

"It's so easy big sister. After all, you were the mistake. My father shagged every young girl he saw," Emma said with a small smile and sloshed back a bottle of whiskey as she changed the channel and continued talking, "He messed up with your mother though. Forgot to protect his _interest._ Ended up with a baby, one he didn't want mum finding out about. But everyone knew."

Mystique looked as if she was ready to start shooting bullets, but instead she turned and walked out of the room screaming and cursing.

"Why'd you do that, Emma?" Rogue asked with a sigh.

Sometimes she couldn't understand if their bickering was some twisted semblance of sibling rivalry or evidence of their enmity.

"Because I wanted to. She looks just like the bastard," Emma began, speaking of her father, "... and I always wanted to make him hurt before he died."

Rogue shook her head and stood up.

Sometimes Emma just made her so fucking angry...

"Roguey, don't think too much. That twisted mind of yours can be confusing to read, but I know anger when I feel it. Don't hate me, Rogue," Emma whispered as quitely as a child would.

She was curled up on the couch, the alcohol staining her breath and making her eyes droop as she looked up at Rogue with almost pleading eyes.

The usual acid sarcasm was gone from her voice, replaced by a weary plead as she drifted into sleep.

"Don't hate me, Rogue."

**Okay, so basically Xmen 1 and Xmen 2 (of course without Rogue's presence) have already occured. And recently the middle of Xmen 3 in this chappie. For Mystique was turned into a human trying to save Magneto fromthe cure, etc, etc. **

**Her powers came back, but she was pissedoff at Magneto. **

**Rogue and Emma decide to rescue her, mostly because Emma needs another helping hand with her plans against the Inner Circle. **

**I hope this wasn't too jumbled, any questions just ask. I kind of just put glimpses of parts of her life in this, because I didn't want to make a separate chapter for her fight with Psylocke, and then her time spent with Wraith (which is taken from a comic book actually) and then her time spent with Mystique and Emma. I might in the future do this anyway, but at the moment I kind of just want to get this moving so she can return to the Xmen. **

**I know I'm lazy. **

**Sorry.**

**Oh and RR!!!!!!!**


	5. Chapter Four Helen of Troy

A/N: At first I thought to myself, Rogue sure has had a lot of bfs, but then I realized that this is over an expand of four years (eventually) and for godsakes she doesn't like

commitments, of course she's gonna have a lot of boyfriends. I hope you follow my reasoning...

Anyway, I'm kind of packing all this into one chapter, as I want to get her bck to the Xmen, but with the reader's understanding of some (but probably not all) parts of her life

in general. Which is why it's somewhat fragmented and not that detail, detail I hope will come later.

And doing this chapter was a little upsetting for me, I miss New Orleans sometimes.

**Chapter Four**

**Helen of Troy**

**One Year Later**

**Britain, London**

Standing there, in the dimming streelights of London, she looked like a cruel, avenging angel with a savage beauty.

Her ruby lips were twisted into a snarl, a look of utter bloodlust and anger made her green eyes flash and the pupils narrow

into minute pinpoints.

Her entire body was poised with the shoulders curved and the hands curled into hard fists, a jittering energy poured out of her, even though

she stood resolute and unmoving.

A slow wind picked up, and her hair floated past her cheeks dramatically.

She had never, in her life-despite the anger and terror set against her during her travels-beginning with Bobby's betrayal and her own realizations, the

mobs of Germany, the betrayal of the Kingpin and Psylocke-who had almost killed her-she had never wanted to kill anyone in cold blood.

Not to the point where it became a driving need that made her hands itch for crimson life and her mind become clouded by it.

Sabertooth's insistence bloodlust was not helping either, it pumped adrenaline through her veins and made her hands shake with emotion.

Someone was going to die tonight.

**FLASHBACK**

**Six Months Ago...**

Emma Frost stood in front of the dark skinned woman, her smile was still absolutely cocky, but faltering.

Though it wasn't noticeable, Rogue, through her time spent with her Aunt, knew the wavering look in her blue eyes meant she was afraid.

And Emma Frost was never afraid.

But thiwere different now.

Sebastian Shaw, the Black King, was dead, and presumptions as to his untimely death fell on the head of the woman standing in front of them.

She was tall, bronze skinned, with long black hair and wild black eyes that seemed too wide and too intense.

She was dressed in a long black dress, with black pearls, and her hands were long with painted black fingernails.

She came into their house, uninvited and unexpected, sitting on one of Emma's favorite white, suede couches with her head in one hand and her other draped

over her knee.

Rogue was the first to spot her when she entered the living room.

Automatically she balled up her fists, calling upon several powers at once ready to fight.

Mystique pulled out a gun from underneath her white skirt, and Emma's skin turned into instant diamond.

The woman smiled, looked at them and shook her head.

Emma suddenly realizing who she was seemed to turn into a trembling figure.

"Selene. The Black Queen." She whispered to the others.

Rogue's eyes widened.

She had heard about Selene. She was powerful, a mutant who was supposedly immortal and possessed various powers.

All of which had assisted her in gaining her position, which had grown in power among the Inner Circle now that Sebastian Shaw was dead.

Mystique cocked her gun up, released the safety and snarled.

"Who are you?"

"Selene." The woman said in a dark purr, her eyes drifted over each of them as if she were mocking them, they lingered on Rogue for a moment and then she stood up.

Walking forward she coked her head to the side, enchanted it seemed by Rogue.

"Little girl, little girl, what are you doing here?" She asked and tugged at her hair.

Rogue narrowed her eyes and was about to push her hand away but Emma stopped her.

"Don't touch her Rogue." She hissed hysterically.

Selene laughed and pulled her hand away, turning to Emma with a contemptous grin.

"Oh dear, Frost. White Queen," She mocked and stepped forward, "I hear this little family you've gathered is plotting against me. Trying to take over the Inner Circle.

Take over the Hellfire Club, a club I've strived to become the leader of."

Emma shook her head, her hands were trembling.

Rogue had never seen her afraid before, or at least enough to openly show it.

Mystique seemed to be thinking the same thing, because her yellow eyes were staring at Emma in shock.

Exactly what was so horrifying about this Selene anyway?

"Of course not, Selene. I've done nothing to-"

"Cut the bullshit Frost!" Selene suddenly boomed, and the room actually, literally shook.

"I heard you broke Mystique out. For what? Another loyal subject you could rely on? And then the Reavers, you've got them under your thumb now in London.

Your own personal pack of mutant thieves and thugs! And I've heard other things as well, you've been taking a lot of interest in playing house to some of the

members of the Inner Circle, I've noticed. Inviting them to parties and tea time get togethers. You've also got your little protege training under the legendary Black Widow to become an assassin. And let's not, of course, forget her interactions with the New York Circle. I hear Tessa has become quite a friend and guardian of the young Rogue. So is she how you think you'll gain power? Huh? Raise her into the perfect little fighting machine, make her the friend of all concerned with the Hellfire Club and then turn her against me? And what is her mother to do? Assist her with the use of machine guns and seduction? Did you fucking think I'd allow it Frost?" She screeched.

Her pretty face became suddenly ugly and twisted and her eyes widnened in anger.

Emma shook her head.

"I would never think that Selene, I-"

"Shut up!" Selene spat and grabbed Emma's wrist in an iron grip.

Rogue was the first to react.

Hissing she attempted to pull Selene back but was surprised when a spurt of flame was flung at her.

Cursing Rogue flipped backwards, and Mystique let her bullets fly.

They hit her in the shoulder and the side of her face.

Each shot making a small hole and flinging a gruesome amount of blood into the air.

Some of it splattered onto Frost's wrist.

Selene let her go with a grin.

Frost seemed to have been somehow affected by her powers, because her face was haggard, paler than normal and she was breathing in harsh, painful gasps.

"She-she drains energy through touch," Emma explained with gasps of air as she fell to the ground.

"Don't give a damn what she does!" Rogue spat and telekinetically through a chair and table at the smiling woman.

Selene laughed and turned towards her, blood dripping from Mystique's bullet wounds.

With a flourish of her hand the furniture was thrown in the other direction.

The bullet wounds were beginning to heal rapidly.

"I can't be killed you idiots." She huffed.

"The fuck you say." Mystique cursed her and lashed out, Rogue did the same, using super human speed and strength.

Selene flung them both back. Smashing Rogue's face into the wall and spinning on her heal.

Rogue cursed and stumbled onto her feet.

Goddamn woman was powerful!

"Thought you could stop me Frost? Thought you could kill me? I must admit your little girl is powerful, but not strong enough to defeat me." Selene screeched.

Rogue saw it happen in slow motion-she herself couldn't move in time as her powers had drained her considerably.

Selene moved forward her hands lifted, her mouth twisted into a grin of harsh enjoyment. Mystique moved forward but was thrown back in a whirlwind of fire.  
Selene picked Emma up by her leg, lifted her dramatically and then threw her.

Emma hissed, changed into her diamond form in a glimmer of white and silver as she was thrown into the wall. But Selene seemed to be expecting this. She was there in a moment, her hands wrapped around Emma's throat. Little by little Rogue could see her energy being transferred into the woman, and Emma's ability to hold up her diamond skin was faltering.

"No one tricks me, Frost."

Rogue ran forward and this attempted to use Psylocke's psych-katana and super speed to reach Selene, but was once again thrown across the room rather flippantly.

A beam of fire accompanied it and Rogue yelled out as it scorched her right arm into a blackened layer of skin.

"Fuck!" Rogue screamed and desperately pulled onto Wolverine's powers.

Emma's skin faltered and she was almost to the point of unconsciousness when Selene lifted her and then through her into the wall once more, repeatedly until blood dripped from Emma's nose.

Rogue screamed out, her head dizzy with rage and exhertion as she tried to pull herself up. The number of powers she was using was taking its tole in weariness, and her hand wasn't even half healed yet. The burned flesh still seemed to be sizzling and raw.

Mystique was out for the count-her gun fallen next to her.

Rogue did the only thing she could do.

Pulling on the last of her strength she got up and ran into Selene with as much super speed and power as she could hold.

Unsuspecting Selene let Emma fall onto the floor with a heavy crack of bone into a small heap.

Rogue, delirious from exhertion and pain rammed her fist into Selene's face, the heavy crack against her bones flashed out blood from her mouth and nose.

Selene seemed momentarily pissed and then amused as she flung Rogue off of her.

"Very powerful little girl. A lot of potential in you. And spirit, willing to die for your dear Auntie. Ah, yes, a sweet child. Perhaps I've been wrong. I won't kill you Emma, because

I rather like your girl's foolish spirit. This'll just be a warning. But like all warnings," Selene said getting up and moving to Emma, "Like all warnings, this one will last for a long time."

Rogue's head spun with black as she saw Selene's leg come crashing down on Emma's right knee.

The crack was followed by another.

It was tragic to see her like that.

The white queen, reduced to a weary state-in a wheelchair with both legs broken.

And Rogue had felt helpless, useless even, watching as her savior, her flesh and blood had been trampled on and almost killed.

Mystique, who had never shown eiter of them a fraction of emotional attachment since her escape, would wake up every morning and go every night to Emma's room.

As quiet as a mouse she would creep and watch her sleep, sometimes she crept in and kissed her cheek.

Rogue knew she didn't want to be seen.

Mystique wasn't the loving and outwardly affectionate type, but she had a certain motherly quality about her that peeked through the terrorist, rock hard exterior.

Rogue was plagued with guilt and hatred.

Every time she saw Emma it reminded her of what could have happened, of what Rogue failed to be able to defend.

She wanted to cry-and most importantly, she wanted to seek revenge.

Three weeks later she phoned New York and got a plane the next morning.

Emma tried to talk her out of it, but Rogue was resolute.

"She's going to pay, Emma. Obviously Ah'm not powerful enough, Ah need more to defeat her, once and for all..." Rogue hissed.

Emma shook her blonde hair, her eyes had grown dull and resigned, her usual sarcasm and snappy attitude was gone, replaced with a raw exposure of emotion.

"Rogue, ducky. I was stupid, trying to go against Selene like that. I was so stupid to drag you and Mystique into this struggle for power. Just-just let it be. I'll heal Rogue."

Rogue gritted her jaw and shook her head.

Bending down she pulled the blonde woman into a tight hug and kissed her cheek.

"I love you Auntie."

"I love you too, Rogue. That's why I can't let you do this..."

"And you shouldn't."

Rogue turned around, Mystique's yellow eyes were narrowed and cold.

She looked like the same woman who had almost killed her those years ago.

"Who knows how Tessa's powers could affect you. And with the damage Psylocke already did to them, you'll just end up like you were in Japan-an uncontrollable mess." Mystique said harshly.

Rogue winced at that.

"Ah'll cance it."

"It'll be a stupid, irrevocable chance Rogue. You're my daughter, I don't want anything to happen to you." Mystique said with a sigh.

Rogue narrowed her eyes at the blue woman and scoffed.

"You hardly act like my mother, Mystique. If it wasn't for blood tests Ah would contradict the fact."

"Rogue-"

"Save it. Ah'm going to New York, Mystique."

**Back in the States.**

She hadn't been in the USA since she left to find control in Germany.

That was what-?

Some two years and some months ago?

She found Tessa's branch of the Hellfire Club in no time.

Tessa, a stone faced woman with beautiful black hair, a symmetrical face that possessed no sign of humanity in it, was a mutant with the mind of a supercomputer.

She could withhold more information than a supercomputer actually, and she remembered things in vivid detail, as if the moment in time were a perfect picture of the senses.

She could also permanently "upgrade" a mutant's powers to the point where they became phenomenal.

Plainly speaking, she could turn a mutants powers up past their normal limits.

This was obviously dangerous.

For one, anything past normal limits could be precarious, or deadly to the person involved.

Who knew the type of individual reactions it might have on unique powers?

In Rogue's case, her powers were already negatively affected by Psylocke. Tessa's powers might only just make them worse off.

Tessa told her so as well, but Rogue was a woman with a mission.

Tessa agreed and jumped her powers.

At first, it seemed as if nothing happened.

But then of course, Rogue felt the powers of every person she had ever absorbed rushing to the forefront, along with their psyches, which had seemed to become almost real entities

in and of themselves now.

Rogue almost ripped half of Tessa's headquarters apart.

Tessa trained Rogue rigorously the ways of controlling her mental walls and powers.

Under the proper tutelage, Rogue finally brought them under control.

Six months later she flew back to London, back to her mother and aunt, back to Selene...

**END OF FLASHBACK**

She pulled the cigar from her lips, blew out air and walked towards the building with intent.

A limousine pulled up and she could see the black head of Selene step out.

Turning, Selene looked at her with amusement.

"Come for more? Hmm? Unhappy about Emma's little problem? She should be almost up and walking by now."

Selene laughed.

Rogue said nothing, the feeling was building, Sabertooth's mind was itching for death.

To smell her blood, taste it-

"Why don't you go back home? I don't want to have to kill you..." She said flippantly and then turned around to move towards the building.

Rogue's rage peaked.

With a flick of her wrist,the limousine and whoever was in it flipped up and over into the large building, crashing into it and exploding in a loud boom and spit of fire.

Selene turned quicky on her heel, her face twisted with newfound anger.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? I try to help you and you give me this?? So be it!"

She flung out a ball of fire.

Rogue flicked her wrist, and the flames were reflected across a telekinetic shield.

Selene snorted and moved forward to grab Rogue who easily moved away and then flung Selene backwards into the building.

Selene got up quick enough, the gash on her face healed and then she was moving at an inhuman speed towards Rogue, her fingers elongating into what seemed to be some

form of claws.

Rogue gritted her teeth, caught the flying woman by the throat and squeezed.

Selene hissed and another wave of fire shot out but was easily reflected.

Rogue looked at her as if uninterested and then an invisible force seemed to smash into Selene, stomping her into the ground repeatedly.

Rogue knew it wouldn't be able to kill her, just hurt like fuck.

"You idiot! I'll have you killed for this."

Rogue chuckled.

"Should've did it when you had the chance. Back when the going was good." Rogue grasped the woman's hand and felt her energy draining into Selene.

Shrugging it off she pulled with all the might of her abilities.

Selene screeched-memories and powers coursed through Rogue's veins, and she screamed at the intensity of it.

She screamed until Selene stopped moving.

Until Selene fell limp like some flimsy doll.

And then, wild a sudden coldness-perhaps from Selene or her own hatred-she tossed her body away onto the sidewalk.

Along with her discarded cigarette.

"You killed her?" Mystique repeated.

Rogue nodded.

A sudden onslaught of pain and memories crashed into her, and she screamed, regaining control at the last moment.

Goddamn Psylocke.

Goddamn Selene.

Blood came down from her nose onto her lips.

She wiped it carelessly away.

Emma limped into the room.

Mystique assisted as she sat down, her eyes looking deep into Rogue's.

"So you killed the Black Queen."

"Yes."

The old fire in her blue eyes was beautiful, and the sarcastic smile was a blessing.

"Then let's celebrate."

"Alright then, Queen." Rogue said with a bow.

"Thank you Rogue."

**Three Weeks Later**

**Private Jet **

New Orleans, USA

Marcus Bordeaux bit his bottom lip and watched the door apprehensively.

"Worried, Marcus?" Julien asked with his signature flash of teeth.

Marcus gave his son a glare and turned back towards the door.

The Assassin's Guild was moving up in the world.

It was becoming more than just a Guild shrouded in mystique and old traditions, but a business that would soon become global and more affluent

than its previous decades.

And Julien, Marcus' son, was to be its heir.

The tall young man was slightly taller than his father, with long, blonde hair, aristocratic features of a handsome nature, and glittering blue eyes. He had

a muscular frame, not overtly noticeable but noticeable in the broad expanse of his white shirt and black, velvet blazer.

He was quite a lady's man these days.

Now and then he'd wink or give his charming devil may care smile in someone's direction.

Marcus wondered if he would ever find _someone _to settle down with.

If the Assassin's Guild was to become successful, and to carry on, he would need to do so through Julien.

However, there was of course, Belladonna, but his youngest child was extremely too malevolent and spoiled to understand the strict disciplines necessary

to run the Guild.

Damn, if only his children could be more accomodating-

A small woman with blonde hair entered the room, dressed in a white, tight fitting dress and pearls.

Her pretty face looked up, the blue eyes narrowed in recognition, and she nodded towards Marcus.

Two women were following close behind her.

The one to her right was in her mid thirties probably, with black hair, black eyes and a tight smile.

To her left, was a young girl, with lovely green eyes, an innocent face and rounded lips.

She was wearing a dark emerald gown that matched the flickering shade of her eyes.

"Marcus," The blonde woman said with a small smile and nod of her head.

"Queen,"He said with a valiant bow.

The auburn haired woman with green eyes smirked and turned to the raven haired woman.

She whispered something and a small chuckle was exchanged.

"This is my...sister Mystique," Emma said pointing towards the raven haired woman.

Mystique smirked and nodded her head flippantly.

"And my niece-Rogue."

Rogue smiled in his direction.

"Nice to meet both of you. This is my son Julien, my daughter, Belladonna, is off in the dance somewhere," He lied, knowing full well exactly where Belladonna probably

was.

Damn LeBeaus.

"How do you do," Julien flashed them all a smile, his eyes lingered on Rogue.

"Would you like to dance, Madmoiselle?" He asked her.

Rogue looked towards Emma and Mystique.

Mystique was looking at Julien disapprovingly, Emma was smiling and waving her hand for her to shoo.

"Go on, luv, have a little fun while we're in New Orleans." Emma said.

Julien carried her away to the dance floor.

He was a graceful dancer.

He didn't struggle, like some men did in her presence, to take the lead and carry it out well, instead he seemed to be sink into his steps as if it was as easy as breathing air.

Rogue knew a good dancer when she saw one-she had three professionally trained ones in her head.

"You dance beautifully." He commented and smiled.

He smiled a lot.

It could be disconcerting sometimes.

"Thank you, you dance very well yourself actually."

"Just well?" He asked politely, finally a small revealing of his accent could be heard with his amusement.

"Well, Ah have danced with many, shugah, but yo' the first man t' keep up."

He laughed at that.

**Two Months Later...**

Rogue's invitation to become a member of the Assassin's Guild was accepted on a temporary basis.

Emma was hoping to spread the Hellfire Club's influence, and the Assassin's Guild was hoping to expand as well.

Her terms to become a member were mutually beneficial.

She would gain some spheres of influence to control the Guild, and the Guild would get an opportunity to prove their worth.

Mystique was not too happy about leaving Rogue behind, but Emma assured her Rogue would be perfectly alright without their company.

In the time she spent within the Boudreaux Estate, she'd become friends with most of the Guild members.

Though she allowed her true identity to be a secret, and took orders dutifully, there was a known mystery and importance about her that others knew to be weary of.

That and it was a known fact that the Bordeaux's eldest son was madly in love with her, and rather jealous of her many conquests.

She was not the commitment type, that was made quite apparent from the beginning of her stay.

She was seen with men, always different, never the same-and in their company she seemed to relish a sense of control and detachment. They would fawn and she

would accept their praises before throwing them away to move on to the next conquest.

Those relationships which lasted longer than most, or were seen by Julien, usually ended prematurely, partially due to his influence in some way.

So of course, LeBeau, hearing of this 'Lady Rogue' and her conquests and ability to put Julien in a jealous rage-had to see her, at least to understand what all the fuss was about.

He tried to arrange it to happen through Belladonna, who followed him about wide eyed and lovingly, and would do almost anything to be in his good graces.

She, suspecting some attempt at infidelity on his side, refused, and he was left to find his own means.

The time came, during a ball.

Really, it was a political gathering of the Thieves and Assassins, in order to try and reconcile the War that had been proving fatal to both sides for a while now.

As the Prince of Thieves, Remy was expected to make an appearance-in fact, Jean Luc required that he come properly dressed and without his usual layer of suave and flirt.

Dressed in a simple black suit with a red shirt and no tie, he seemed glaringly out of place with crimson eyes on a background of black.

His hair was neatly pulled back into a short ponytail.

"LeBeau," Marcon, said to him with a wide grin and patted him on the back.

The man had just entered the room and was already half drunk.

"Marcon," Remy said flippantly, watching the crowd flippantly.

"Nice little gathering, non?" The blonde haired thief asked the Prince of Thieves.

LeBeau snorted.

"Wouldn' be 'ere if it weren't fo' mon pere. Got ot'er t'ings 'd rather be doin', mon ami,"

"An' other people to, non? Like a certain Belladonna..." Marcon said with a smirk.

"Quite, fo' y' get us killed. If her brother heard 'bout us-"

"He'd hut you and chop your balls off, I know. Why don't you go wit' someone dat ain't his sister? How 'bout dat new Rogue femme. Un belle if I ever seen one." Marcon said and

drank another glass of champagne.

"Heard all 'bout her. The Assassins seem to be swooning over her. Never seen her though, so Remy don't know what all dis fuss be about."

"Never seen her. Well here's your lucky day, mon cher!" Marcon said and pointed.

There was a woman standing next to Marcus of the Assassins, her face resolute and contemplative as Remy's father, Jean-Luc spoke.

She was worth her veneration.

Slender, nicely buillt with round, soft curves and an elegant and alluring fluid like movement. Her face was golden, the lips rounded and ruby red, the features exquisitely and

perfectly placed and entirely feminine. Her auburn locks were great sea waves that cascaded down to her waist, and what he loved most about this beautiful creature

were her eyes.

They were round, wide and a wonderful shade of green that could become dark or light in an instant of emotion.

She was wearing a white gown of silk, with silver thread and white heels that showed off long legs.

"Mon Dieu," Remy whispered and Marcon laughed.

"Yeah, dat's what I said. Belle femme."

Remy's interest in the conversation suddenly perked up and he moved quickly forward throughout the crowd of elegantly dressed criminals.

"It's in the interest of us, that the two Guilds do unite," Rogue said.

Marcus raised an eyebrow.

"Why so?"

"For one, your Guild is very renown in these parts, but it lacks order, due to this unnecessary war with the Thieves. And the Thieves Guild themselves, though not

nearly as significant-havea certain standing themselves that may be of some use to us, especially within New Orleans at least."

Jean-Luc winced at that and gritted his teeth.

Remy could see him glaring at the confident, stoic woman before him with seething hatred.

"Chere, y'don' know a thing about us," He replied simply.

Rogue sighed.

"Listen, Ah am not here to insult you. Ah am here to give you the facts, and to tell you how they can be utilized for our mutual benefit. If you both continue this

war, the Hellfire Club will have no choice but to either A) Have both of your Guilds destroyed and take over New Orlean's criminal organizations for themselves, or B)

Force you to make an agreement that might not be as beneficial as an agreement made deliberately between you. And do not believe that this is not inevitable, for it is." Rogue

said, her cold tone of voice took on Mystique's slight air of mocking and Tessa's analytical tone.

The two Guild members nodded at that, preturbed in their own way at the options given.

"I suppose then, if that's the case then there's no choice," Jean-Luc scolded.

Remy decided to make himself known.

"Mon pere," Remy said with a wink in Jean-Luc's direction.

Jean-Luc gave him a knowing, admonishing glance and then introduced him.

"And this is Rogue,"

"Rogue? Interesting name, chere. Got a real name t' go wit' it?" Remy asked with a slow grin.

Rogue sighed. She never mixed work with pleasure, and the way this LeBeau was acting he obviously didn't care to use discretion or formalities.

Which was pissing her off.

She had a reputation to uphold within the Guilds, first and foremost. If her position was in any way looked down upon, it reflected the Hellfire Club, and she

would need to take drastic, if not dire methods to regain it.

Which was why Remy LeBeau was going to have to learn his place and not fucking flirt with her so outwardly just because she was a woman.

A certain flash of irritation lit her eyes and her lips pursed.

"You will refer to me, Mr. LeBeau, as Rogue. Whatever _real _name you may think Ah have does not concern you. This is not a place to be exchanging

pleasantries or informalities. There is business to conduct, and if you persist in this abhorrent display of infidelity, I may be tempted to alert your betrothed!" Rogue snapped.

Damn chauvinistic, cheating males-

"My _what_?" Remy snapped.

"Your wife, Remy," Jean-Luc said with a sigh.

"My _what_?" Remy repeated.

"In order for the Guilds to have a guarantee of the peace between us, we need a mixture of the bloodlines that cannot be broken. Your marriage to Belladonna will provide

that, as it will be evident that to go against the other and their Guild is to go against all." Marcus said with a raised eyebrow.

Remy's eyes widened, his teeth gritted and his eyes turned towards the auburn haired beauty who had caused all this.

Belladonna was a beauty, but he wasn't the type to settle down and marry for the good of the many.

Damn it.

Rogue smirked in his direction, and Remy found himself, for the first time in his life wanting to strangle a femme.

"Well, Remy LeBeau, or should Ah say Mr. Bordeaux-LeBeau, do y' have any objections to this? Be warned that this is the onlyassured way to preserve the name of your family's

Guild without unnecessary bloodshed on either side." She was laughing at him, and he could see it and _feel _it through his empathy.

The damn woman was laughing at _him. _

"Non," He murmured with contained anger.

He hated that woman.

**A Couple of Months (Practically a Year Now) Later...**

He hated her.

With every part of himself he hated her.

He hated that damn way she watched him with vehemence and scorn. The damn way she mocked him when she spoke, or turned simple civility into a battle of

wits and insults. He hated that she had been the one to betroth him to Belladonna, he hated that she was making the Thieves Guild look like a powerless

institution being dragged by the tail.

He hated that she was so goddamn beautiful.

He hated that he wanted her but couldn't have her, but could only watched as other men (fools really) tried.

And he hated loving her like this-without reserve,without understanding or control.

For the first time in his life he was not in control of his emotions, and it was all her fault that his world was falling apart.

She was a goddamn witch, or a voodoo priestess, or a temptress succumbus from hell sent to torment him for his previous behavior.

He tried everything to stop her damn face from infiltrating his dreams. He tried to stop looking like a fool every time he tried to talk to her but found himself entranced instead.

He hated her.

He loved her.

Strange thoughts came into him now and then-thoughts of the future, and of time.

He wondered, what it would be like to marry her, to marry Rogue and have a family in some small place in New Orleans.

To grow old with her.

He needed to know if there was some way...if he could possibly...

"What are you doing here, Gambit?" She snapped.

As always she was beautiful, even simply dressed in worn tight blue jeans, a dark emerald tank top and yellow gloves.

Her hair was pushe dback into a ponytail.

LeBeau stood there against the door, watching her solemnly, his emotions on a sudden rampage.

"Belladonna's gonna miss you LeBeau, what the hell are you doing in hea'? Yer wedding's in an hour." Rogue snapped.

Remy stepped forward, his face uncharacteristically calm.

"I can' do dis, Rogue," He whispered.

Rogue gave him a hard glance.

"You don' have a choice, Remy. There's no other way. Why y' so afraid of marriage, Remy?" She scoffed.

"Why _you _so afraid of marriage, _Rogue?" _He snapped back with rage.

"Is that what y' came hea'fo'? 'Nother fight with meh before y' wedding night? Goddamn it Remy y' haven't even put on yer tuxedo. And Ah gotta change as

well y' know. Belladonna wants me t' be a brides maid, and though she's a stuck up prissy, Ah do love that girl like a sister. Which is why Ah won't have y' pulling

anything on her Remy. She's a brat, but an innocent girl. She don' deserve you."

"Why're you always picking a fight with me, Rogue? Why're you so fucking afraid of me?"

"Ah'm not afraid of you you goddamn prick! Ah have a job t' do, and Ah won' let y' ruin what Ah've strived for these past months."

"What t' ruin me?" Remy choked.

"Wait-what?"

He breathed in and stepped forward until he was inches from her, until he could smell magnolias and vanilla scent and feel her breath on his skin.

"Everything was fine until you came...and then you ruined me..."

"LeBeau, Ah didn't do anything, Ah didn't even suggest it. It was a mutual-"

"Not that you stupid femme!"

"Then what? What the fuck is your problem LeBeau? Why the hell are you being so emotional-?"

She was cut off by his quick movements. His hands reaching out to grab both shoulders tightly and pulling her tightly against him. His lips descended in a quick motion,

plummeling hers with confined emotions and a certain desperate insistence.

Rogue moaned and then pushed him back with wide eyes.

The sight of her swollen lips and flushed face was enough to make his blood boil with lust, and he stepped forward against with a husky groan.

"Get away from her, LeBeau," A voice from the doorway called out.

Turning Remy spotted the dark blonde hair and chilling blue eyes. The jaw clenched in fury, the hands flexing in an attempt for control. He was dressed in a sharp,

white tuxedo with a royal blue shirt and red tie.

Remy turned towards him and his demonic eyes flashed.

"Julien,"

"Should have known you'd pull a stunt like this one. But I'm not letting you do this." Julien spat.

"Mind your own business, Julien."

"This is my business, thief! You're marrying my sister, and you're trying to put a move on her brides maid!"

Remy chuckled and stepped towards him.

"Non, I'm putting a move on your _femme, _isn't dat what got y' so uptight."

Julien fumed.

"Seen the way you look at her. Seen how y' try and ruin any man that gets a chance wit' her. Dis isn't about your sister, dis about _her _and you know it, mon _ami,_" Remy hissed.

Julien's face turned red with fury.

"Oh? T'ink y're so smart, LeBeau? Think I haven't noticed d'way _y' look at her? _ When y' think no one's looking? The way you stare at her? Like y're on fire? Well y' can't have her LeBeau,

you need to leave!" Julien spat.

Rogue blinked and then shouted at them both.

"Could you both just shut up? Belladonna is going to be waiting. You need t' get ready for the wedding-"

"I'm already ready," Julien said slowly looking at Remy.

"And I'm not going to the wedding," Remy hissed at Julien.

"Damn it, Remy! Could y' just put y'r lust aside and take responsibility for-"

"Lust? You silly _femme_! Y' d'ink dis is jus' 'bout me wanting y'?" Remy shouted hysterically and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her insistently, "I want you Rogue, but I want all of you.

I want you to love me, like I love you, need me like I need you. I can't stand by everyday and watch you like this, like you don't matter to me Rogue."

Rogue stared up at him confounded at the raw emotion he was suddenly betraying.

Julien roared in anger and turned Remy around.

"Don't touch her!"

His fist came down across Remy's cheek, sending him crashing into the bed.

LeBeau cursed him and jumped forward, snapping Julien's jaw back with a quick uppercut.

"Let's finish this, Julien. Me and you got a long history to solve." Remy spat.

Julien wiped the blood from his lips and nodded.

"A duel it is then. Only one man left standing."

Rogue gritted her teeth.

"No! You stupid idiots! This is a wedding, not a goddamn day for bloodshed. Y're gonna break Belladonna's heart. And where the fuck did this whole love thing come into

play anyway? What the hell are you guy's-"

She didn't finish.

Julien had tackled Remy to the floor.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you guys like this chappie, if you want more y'know the best way to inspire is through reviews!!!!!!!**

**Please!!!!!!!!**

**  
**


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Basic Need

**One Year Later:**

**NEW YORK**

Cold winter night, that familiar smooth air and shadowed edifices built to reach the sky.

New York.

The place she had always believed she'd never come back to.

But business had decided otherwise.

She was standing against the streetlight, her body hidden in a slim, leather coat. She was wearing a black, cashmere sweater, with dark black jeans and knitted white gloves. Her hair fell down past her shoulders in a simple braid.

Her motorcycle, a black and green Harley with several dents and scratches she would eventually repair, gleamed in the reflected light of the snow. It was a very important part of her now. She had almost been killed more times than she could remember on that Harley.

She felt a subliminal itch, and then a switch of character as a psyche's habits began to make her body twitch.

Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a cigar, and then pressed her now ungloved finger to the end.

The cigar puffed slightly as the kinetic energy lit a flame.

Breathing in she felt her body calm and the tobacco and smoke overwhelm her.

Business was good.

Emma had expanded the Hellfire Club substantially, becoming the Black King, giving Rogue her second in command the title of the Black Queen. Rogue had, at first, protested that Mystique should have received the honor, but the blue woman shook her head and her yellow eyes flashed in clever seriousness.

"You silly girl," She spat and then smirked tilting her head slightly back.

"Being the Black Queen would only require me to see your Aunt's face more times a day then I already do, which would drive me insane. No, I prefer to be head of the Hellions instead. I am already used to the elements of terrorism and sabotage, and the Hellions are in need of someone with my experience if they are to survive."

"Besides, you were the one who killed Selene. I would not have been made the Black King if you hadn't."

It was soon settled after many protests, and Rogue was given her own bank account, investments and property across the world, a contract that gave her half of the owned property of the Hellfire Club, and several other responsibilities that proved to be more about business and charismatic diplomacy than her usually kick ass and ask questions later roles.

Rogue had joked with Mystique that the only reason why the blue woman had rejected the job in the first place was in order to prevent having to interact in such a civil and formal matter with people on a regular basis.

Mystique had replied with a flippant 'obviously' and continued to assemble her guns.

The largest base of operations for the Hellfire Club was assembled in London, which was where Rogue had been staying for her introduction to the public as the Black Queen.

Currently, however, her recent travel to New York was to deal with the second largest base of operations controlled by a mutant named Tessa. Business was not doing very well, in fact, several of their main shipments of illegal cargo and counterfeit money had been intercepted by an unknown group.

Emma speculated that it was Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D, an old friend of hers from her past of flippant criminal activities. Mystique figured it was probably their enemy rivals-the Kingpin and the Hand trying to steal their profits.

The situation was becoming so dire that Rogue was to leave herself to oversee the New York Hellfire Club got back to its normal shipping schedule.

"There yet?" Mystique asked.

Rogue tapped the blue tooth in her ear and nodded to herself as she spoke.

"Yeah, I don't see her yet."

"You will," Came the hurried reply.

In the background Rogue heard a thump and then moving feet.

"Gotta go right now, your Aunt says hi," Mystique said somewhat belligerently.

"Don't you mean your baby sister? Or are you the youngest?"

"That half-wit is hardly any relative of mine. Be sure to watch them carefully. I trust Tessa completely, or as completely as I can to someone not of my immediate blood line. However, you should still make sure she's watched, I have some doubts about her."

"I'm sure your doubts are nothing. Tessa trained me remember?"

There was another thump and then a scream.

Mystique hissed and shouted '_Keep him quite!' _before rudely hanging up.

"Rogue?"

Rogue looked up to see a pair of black eyes in a pale, triangular shaped face covered by tresses of black hair.

The woman was wearing a black sweater and black jeans and gloves. Her coat seemed to be made of some velvet material.

"Tessa, I was wondering when you were going to get here."

The woman responded stoically, looking about with keen perception and then back to Rogue.

"They sent only you?" She said in a manner than seemed hopeful-somewhat out of character for Tessa.

Rogue stiffened, sniffed Tessa's scent and let go of her anxieties when her distinctive smell was confirmed as her own.

"Yes," Rogue said finally.

Tessa nodded.

"Alright then, I'll show you to our headquarters and where you will be sleeping tonight."

O o O o o o o O o O

Someone on the inside had to be screwing them over.

Once again the cargo was intercepted, despite Rogue's attempt to manage things from a distance and strategically organize the entire operation.

Obviously there had to be a mole.

Someone inside the Club.

Rogue cursed and kicked at the snow.

Walking and ranting was one of her psyches way to relieve stress, it was currently helping Rogue relieve frustrated anger too.

"Fucking mutie,"

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Rogue turned around to snap a reply when she realized it was not being spoken to her.

Two burly men, obviously inebriated and aggressive, were moving on swaggering feet towards a small slip of a girl-no older than fourteen perhaps-with dark blond hair, blue eyes and a pearl necklace. Obviously, wearing the expensive tailored clothes and jewelry, she was lost in the wrong part of town.

"I didn't mean to-"

"The hell you didn't" One of the snapped and threw a bottle at her.

She screamed and became a translucent gray mist. The bottle went through her and she rematerialized into her normal form.

"I-I can't control it I-"

The two men were advancing on her hungrily, a predatory gleam in their eyes.

"Boys," Rogue drawled and walked forward, a deliberate sway in her hips.

The two men turned towards the green eyed beauty with obvious interest and gaped at her for a moment.

"What's a pretty little thing like you doing out this time of night?" One of them asked.

Rogue smiled flirtatiously, part of Sabertooth's psyche was filling her with a sudden blood lust.

She would use her hands, not her powers for this one.

"Jus' tryin' t' fahnd my way. Now why don' y' leave that sweet ol' girl alone now?" She asked slyly and moved towards the quivering teenager, blocking her from the two men's clumsy path.

"No can do miss, that girl's a mutie."

"Best step away from her before she hurts you!"

"She wouldn't do that. Y'all look a little drunk, y' should take a nap." Rogue replied threateningly.

The two men didn't notice the change in her tone.

"We don't need to sleep." One of them replied stupidly.

Rogue's face became a mask of cold fury as she lashed out.

"Ah didn't ask y' if y' wanted t'!" She spat as her foot came up into the groin of one male, and her fist came crashing down into the jaw of another.

"You little bitc-"

Rogue twisted his wrist painfully in the wrong direction. There was a loud crack followed by a piercing scream. Rogue snickered and threw him into the wall. There was another crack as his nose hit the wall and blood trickled from his nostrils.

"What the hell did you just do! Bob?" The other male called out in hazy concern.

Rogue grabbed that man by the throat and squeezed, lifting him a couple feet off the ground.

"A mutie, a goddamn mutie!" he squeaked as he struggled for breath.

Rogue smiled cruelly and then punched him repeatedly in the face, chuckling with excitement as each punched brought a sound of cracking and the feel of thick crimson against her knuckles.

Sabertooth purred in delight and Rogue released him from her grip, kicking him in the stomach as he fell and throwing him brutally into a brick wall.

The wall cracked, and he screamed as something crunched.

The girl started screaming, her face was filled with tears, and her mouth was held agape in horror.

Rogue stopped her advance, adrenaline and blood lust still pumping in her veins and making her skip from foot to foot like a revved up boxer. The girl's terrified face brought a sudden semblance of control, and she pushed Sabertooth back into the recess of her mind. The mutant psyche growled in slight disappointment.

"Y-you, y-you-" The girl started pointing at the fallen men.

Rogue rolled her eyes in exasperation and then sighed.

"They had it coming. What's y' name then, shugah?"

"Ca-Carla."

"Carla? What y' doing out here this time o' night?" Rogue asked curiously.

"I was going to a museum, and then I decided I'd just take the bus back but then I got lost and-"

Rogue smiled compassionately and rubbed the girl's shoulder.

"It's okay, shugah. I'll take y' home. Where y' live?"

Carla pursed her lips and smoothed her hair out timidly.

"Xavier Institute, on-"

Rogue's smile faded immediately.

Goddamn it.

"Ah know where it is. Fuck, the Institute?...Ah used to go to the Institute." Rogue said slowly.

"Oh? Really? When?"

Rogue shrugged and chuckled with a cruel feeling of irony.

"About four years and some odd months ago. Are you hungry? We could stop to eat on the way there, I think your stomach just threatened me." Rogue said with a raised brow.

"Yeah I'm really hungry."

Rogue nodded and lead the girl back to her motorcycle.

Fuck, she was in New York no more than three days and already she was saving teenage mutants, going to Xavier's and making cheesy jokes for the benefit of other's amusement.

Fuck the New York branch, she should have never came down here.

O o o o O o o O o O o

"Xavier says never attack the humans, because they don't know any better and it doesn't help the peace we're trying to establish. If you were a student, then-why'd you-back there...why'd you hurt them like that?" Carla asked as she held on tightly.

The motorcycle was barely doing forty, Carla would squeak every time it moved faster.

"I _was _ a student. Once you get out into the real world, Carla, you realize you gotta do what you have to to survive. I have no qualms about what I did back there, they deserved it." Rogue spat vehemently, a small part of Mystique's psyche coming to life.

"But that guy. I think when he hit the wall you might have broke his back."

"Then he'll get a wheelchair or something. What the fuck does his back have to do with me?" Rogue snarled and almost threw the girl off her bike in exasperation.

This inability to deal with optimism was stemming from Sabertooth and Emma's psyches.

"Xavier says that we have to show mercy to people. Sometimes they-"

"Xavier this, Xavier _that- _you have to make your own decisions. Xavier's a fool of idealism and unrealistic optimism. Survival is all that matters,"

When they got to the gates of the Institute, old memories stirred, and while Rogue had been tempted to leave the girl there, she already knew Xavier had probably detected her by now.

There was no point in running away from this.

The gates opened, and they walked the paved path together to the broad doors to the Institute.

Rogue sighed reluctantly and knocked.

OoOoOoOoO

Ororo Munroe was a beautiful, mahogany skinned woman, with short white hair and a hatred for surprises.

The dislike stemmed primarily from her powers.

Control was what was necessary to control the winds and the rains, to prevent herself from causing a flood to come tumbling across the world when her anger became tremendous. So surprises in any form or manner that might impede upon her emotions, and thusly her powers, were something she had learned to dislike.

Which was why, as she saw one of her best students Carla Mendel arriving safe and sound after a night of worry, in the arms of a familiar looking woman with white streaks-a thunder cloud and a burst of wind made the windows of the Institute shatter.

"Carla, by the Goddess, I'm happy you're alright," Ororo said with a grin and returned the affectionate hug as Carla's arms circled her waist.

"Thanks Ms. Munroe, this lady saved me-I-I thought I was going to die and she-saved me,"

The woman at the door pursed her lips in an obvious frown at that statement.

Storm stepped forward with a smile and held her hand out.

"Thank you for returning her to us Ms...?"

The woman fidgeted, her green eyes-such familiar eyes- seemed to stare right into the center of Storm's being.

"You don't remembah meh Storm?" She said quietly.

Storm's eyes widened and she gasped at the distinctive Mississippi accent.

The hair, those eyes-

"Marie?"

OoOoOoOoO

Something about that name tore her apart.

Something about that name made her feel insecure, and then automatically angry.

The words came tumbling out with heated passion:

"I'm not Marie, I haven't been Marie in four years, Ororo," Rogue said meaningfully, stressing Storm's name.

"Of course, Rogue. I-I'm just surprised, pleasantly surprised." Ororo hugged her and sighed with a small smile.

"You've grown up I see,"

Rogue smirked and shrugged.

"Ah guess Ah have a little, been a while though-hasn't it?"

"Some four years or more."

Rogue nodded and was about to speak when familiar footsteps rang against the wood of the Institute.

"Storm-did you blow out the windows or is Havoc playing around agai-" Wolverine stopped his advance immediately.

His face, still the same as ever, locked onto Rogue and his eyes widened.

"Marie," He whispered.

Rogue's jaw almost snapped.

"It's just Rogue now," She retorted softly.

"I haven't seen you since-since-forever! I-darlin' I missed you! You didn't say goodbye or-" Wolverine had wrapped her in a gruff, awkward hug that made her laugh with outright mirth at his uncharacteristic cheerfulness.

"Logan-"

"We've got to have a welcome home party or something! A big -"

"Logan!"

"Yeah, darlin'?"

"It's nice to see you again, but I have to be going. Ah only came hea' t' drop off the little bit, o'er there, shugah."

"Go? But, I'm sure everyone else would want to see you! I mean, Rogue, it's been so long...we were worried and-" Storm started apprehensively.

"Ah know, but Ah don' think it would be a good idea, Ah got things t' do raght now, Ah got to-"

There was a rumble of feet, like the beginning of a stomping parade, and several familiar voices came tumbling down the steps.

Xavier wheeled in from the left, his face impassive at first and then suddenly layered with a broad grin.

"Rogue, welcome back." He said cheerfully.

Rogue's eyes widened as he came forward. Half of the right side of his face was marred with ragged flesh wounds that looked like inside out burn marks.

His right eye was stretched on the end gruesomely.

"Ah, it wasn't as bad as it may look, really." He said flippantly.

Behind him a squeal lit the air, and black hair and gold hoops came tumbling forward.

Jubilee screeched again and hugged Rogue impossibly tight, her face a broad grin.

"You're back!!! Rogue! I missed you!" Jubilee squealed.

Rogue struggled for breath as the petite girl grasped her in an iron hold.

"Where'd you go? What did you do? Why're you back?"

Rogue was bombarded with several questions from all sides. The confusion of the situation and the reminiscent memories of old times made her forget her reasoning as she was led into the dining room by inquiring minds.

"Stay for dinner? Most of the others are out on a mission, they won't be back until afterm" Xavier said knowingly, his eyebrow raised.

Rogue pursed her lips.

"Ah can't, Ah gotta be going soon and-"

"Come on, please! You have to stay at least for dinner!" Carla protested.

Rogue sighed, wondering how she allowed herself to get into these predicaments.

Hopefully Tessa would be able to do by herself until she got back.

OoOoOoOoO


	7. Chapter 7

-1_A/N: _I have not only had a writer's block but also personal and medical problems that have made the least of my worries updating this fic. However, I do love writing this, and I will try to complete this even though I'm not very happy with this chapter.

Anyway, I'll probably go over this chapter again, just because I'm a slight perfectionist, but this is pretty much the gist. The next one is already in progress, and hopefully better than this. I have read the reviews and I have also noticed Rogue's harshness as well, which is my intentions. She's been too soft, so she becomes too harsh. It's hard to establish a middle ground. However, we'll begin to see more of the softer, empathetic Rogue as the chapters roll on.

Thanks for reading!

Chapter Six

Everything Ends in Tragedy

ROGUE'S POV

I should never have stayed.

_Why the hell did I do that in the first damn place?_

Well, you got to learn from your mistakes is what Mystique always says before she goes on a tangent about my inadequacies.

Carla was staring at me with those pretty blue eyes of hers, and Logan, the man I had a crush on and had saved my life on more than one occasion, was staring at me like his daughter had come home….

I mean really, I can fall out of a skyscraper and kick an Immortal's ass-so I should damn well be able to say no.

"Alright. But just for tonight. I have to get going in the morning." I slipped out and simultaneously winced.

_I'm an idiot. _

Logan smiled and Jubilee squealed joyfully. I winced as she gave me an awkward hug with her face carefully away from mine. In confusion I suddenly realized with great amusement that she thought I would suck her dry if she touched me. I almost laughed at that and the sudden sinking feeling that a lot had changed and they would be expecting someone who had been dead for years.

"Where have you been all this time, Rogue?" Jubilee was ecstatic, chewing on gum as usual and pulling me forward.

"Traveling. Uh-where are you taking meh exactly?" I asked and tried to pry myself from Jubilee's hold.

Logan gave me an apologetic shrug and followed the Professor as I was led almost aggressively upstairs.

"To your room, _duh. _Anyway-so traveling, huh? That's soo cool. For four years? Did you start when you were in Ireland? When you went to see Taggart? The Professor told us you decided to go searching on your own and-"

"Jube," I stopped her as she opened the door to one of the spare rooms.

Her gloved hand was still on my elbow and she seemed shocked that I could talk when I interrupted her. Geez, she still talked too much.

"Ah need to get some rest before dinner, if y' don't mind, darlin'." I asked.

Jubilee blinked and then nodded emphatically, popping her gum as she continued to talk and slowly close the door simultaneously.

"Oh yeah, sure-pop-I'll see you in two hours, Rogue! I'll tell you - pop- about everything that's happened including _all _the juicy -pop - details about our new students -pop- and-"

"Thank you, Jubes, bye." I forced the door shut and then, with a sudden thought locked it.

_What a day this was becoming. _

I sighed and realized I would need to tell Tess that I wouldn't be back until the morning. I also needed to outline my plans to find the shipment in the morning.

Sighing I pulled off my sweater. Underneath was a simple black tank top that showed slight midriff. I turned to the vanity and pulled my hair back from my face. The purple scar was still there, a distant reminder of past deeds. I fastened my hair into a ponytail and pulled out my cell phone.

_Rogue? Where are you? _Tess stoically answered.

"Hello to you too, Sunshine. Look, somehow the X-men got me stranded at the Institute."

_You're at the Institute? How did you-?_

"A long story, shugah, and let meh tell ya Ah don't understand half of it mehself. First thing's first though, in the morning Ah'm going to need to speak to the guys pulling the shipments in. They came back today raght?"

_Yes. I'll tell them immediately to wait for you. _

"Good. Alraght, Tess, Ah'll see y' in the morning unless they got another excuse t' keep me hea'. Bye, Tess."

Tess confirmed, and as usual hung up without what she called the "excess of vocal irrelevance", a simple polite goodbye or show of politeness.

I chuckled and put the phone back in my back pocket.

What a day today would be.

"Yes, what a day, Rogue."

I winced and sighed, not needing to look up to know who it was. The figure, lithe and dressed in a black gown crossed my peripheral sight and I gritted my teeth.

"You're a very strong psyche, Selene." I grounded out and I wished she would become real for just a moment so I could ram her face into the ground.

"You have no idea, Rogue." She snorted and her very real but not there form perused the room, searching with beautiful black eyes into my own green.

"Did you think you could really destroy me, Rogue?" She asked.

I scoffed and drew myself up on the bed, preparing to at least meditate and try to clear the chaos of a deeply damaged brain.

"Ah _did _destroy you, Selene, you can play whatever games you want but I _defeated _you."

"Foolish girl, I let you beat me. I wanted to test you. You're greater than you know, do you think I would be defeated that easily? No! I had plans."

"I felt you life energy fade. I felt your death."

"You don't know the extent of my abilities, Rogue." She purred dangerously.

I began to breath in an out, starting the rhythm of meditation. Trying to purge my mind of sound and thought. Listening only to the peace of my inner self-to the-

"I am a powerful psyche because I am a powerful mutant, Rogue. More powerful than you could imagine. But I can reveal my power to you, Rogue. If that's what it takes."

I sank deeper into meditation. One breath, two, three. The psyches clear away. Allow me to stretch my mind slowly…

Selene had plagued me for several months now. After absorbing her, I had only felt her energy but not her presence. This was strange to me, but I did not dwell on it. Instead I rejoiced that I did not feel her presence, one less power mutant to wreak havoc in my mind. But then, several months ago, I began to see her.

She came to me in dreams, in thoughts, and then in person. A fully fleshed person before me; not a transparent figure but a corporeal form that hid its memories and powers from me. She was practically another being living separately in my mind. I felt her but could not touch her powers. It was as if she was really present sometimes-and not just in my mind…

"You can't ignore me, Rogue. You will understand my intentions, soon,"

She disappeared and I sighed.

I didn't need any more complications, not today.

OoOoOoOoOo

THIRD PERSON POV

Rogue yawned as a knock woke her.

"Up, kid? Dinner time."

Rogue thanked Wolverine and rolled out of bed, yawning and foregoing her sweater as she pulled open the door. Logan stood there in a wife beater and tight jeans. She could smell his scent-cigar smoke and what smelled like trees in the wind. He was a wild creature, Wolverine, and an extremely appetizing one at that.

"Ah'm not a kid anymore, Logan," She purred and gave him a smirk that screamed Mystique.

Logan looked at her almost aghast and then nodded with a sincere smile.

"No you're not. You're what twenty now? It's been so long, darlin'. I'm just glad you're alright."

"_Yes," _Rogue almost frowned as she moved forward, placing a hand teasingly on Logan's chest and forcing him to look her in the eyes.

"Are you really glad…Logan…" She purred, something that would have made any other man hers in an instance.

Logan's eyes widened and he stepped back hurriedly frowning.

"Alright, let's go kid." He gave her a half smile.

Rogue let her eyes roam his body and sighed with a slight pout. The man thought of her as a daughter, even while she was staring at him like an appetizer he still couldn't seem to fathom she possessed a certain amount of female sexuality.

"Let's…" She huffed in irritation.

Four years on the road in several different countries-establishing herself as a man-eater as well as the best assassin in Europe and the instance she came back to the Institute she was once again a _girl. _

She needed a smoke.

"So what happened to the Professor?"

Logan grimaced and didn't say anything for a moment. When he replied it was a thick, broken whisper.

"Jean."

Rogue stopped.

"Jean? Ah meant t' ask y' earlier about that. Ah haven't seen her anywhere. Why is that?"

Wolverine sniffed and started walking, his hands clenched and unclenched.

"I killed her."

"What? You-"

"Yes. Apparently her powers are greater than any of us except the Professor and Magneto knew. She was suffering from a mental illness when Xavier first met her- it's called I think borderline personality disorder or something. Xavier tried to use his powers to help her along time ago, and he also buried her abilities. But a couple of months ago she…" Wolverine stopped and moaned.

"Logan? Logan are you -"

"_Graaaagh!" _Wolverine unleashed his claws and drove them into the opposite wall. Enraged he turned and sliced through a Romanesque statue.

"Logan!"

"I-look, I'm alright. Sorry, darlin'. I don't want to talk about this. She killed a lot of people. Including Summers. I didn't have a choice."

"Scott?" Rogue blinked almost in tears.

It had been four years. A small time truly, but apparently a lifetime for her to become something her former self would have feared, and for the Xmen to have suffered a blow from their own member. _Dead. _Scott? By the love of his life?

That was a Shakespearean tragedy if she had ever heard one.

"Logan, Ah'm sahwry I wasn' there. Ah could've been there for y'…or helped to stop her…"

"There was nothing you could have done. This talk is over. Come on."

_Ah, but you could have helped. You're not so defenseless anymore .Magneto. _

_Shut up .Rogue. _

_I'm supposing it bothers you that you weren't here due to selfish reasons of your own .Magneto._

_"Go to hell." _Rogue hissed under her breath.

Wolverine frowned and looked at her in confusion.

"What?"

"No, not you, sorry, Ah-"

"Alright, look Gambit this is the last _straw._" She heard Bobby ahead of them and stopped in her tracks.

"Don' know what y' talkin' 'bout, mon ami. Gambit just be minding hiz business…"

Something in her froze. Deathly quiet listened, ignoring Wolverine who was questioning her.

"I don't know why you think you're so damn high and mighty, but you're not! I'm tired of you pretending like you're a God among insects or something, Gambit!"

_That accent. She knew that goddamn accent anywhere!_

Enraged Rogue started moving forward towards the voice, Logan followed behind her yelling out her name as she rushed by.

"Mon ami! How dare you accuse me of pretending!"

She had to admit. She wasn't prepared for this even when she knew what she was going to see. Entering the main hall she had not been prepared to see her ex-lover and reason for leaving the X-men with her former enemy-_Remy Lebeau_.

Remy, as usual, was leaning suave and calmly against the wall. His lean frame was pinched in a tight black shirt and dark blue jeans. His famous trench coat was tossed flippantly over one shoulder. He was gorgeous as ever, the prick. Roguish features accentuated by the prettiest bow shaped lips and seductive red on black eyes and auburn hair, longer than she remembered it, pulled back into a neat ponytail.

Bobby was taller than she remembered, still boyishly handsome except he seemed to be more of a man now than before-a formed square chin and eyes somehow calmer even in their anger. His blue eyes were glinting steel and he was lean, leaner than the Cajun but not without his own collection of sinewy muscles underneath a white shirt and light blue jeans.

Right now the blonde bombshell was particularly enraged.

"Look, Gambit I just want them, back."

"Can't say that Gambit know what y' talkin' 'bout, but if-"

Before he could speak another word she had charged forward. Green eyes half mad with anger her right hand flew out and Remy was levitated some five feet above the ground, sputtering and holding at his neck as he was jostled about in the air uncomfortably.

"Remy LeBeau." Rogue entered the room stoically, taking on the role of the Black Queen. She may have played Marie for a moment, but this, this was business down to the core. The Club had a price on LeBeau's head.

"Ah, mon cher, Remy was wondering…_ack…_when…_ugh…._you-would-get here." He choked out.

"So you're the cheeky little bastard that's been stealing my cargo?! You presumptuous fool. I am not one whom you would wish to provoke into enraged action!" Rogue spat and felt herself channeling Magneto's villainy eagerly.

"Non, cher. Wasn't me, but Remy heard y' was the Queen now. The Boss Lady, eh? And Remy heard about the cargo problem in New York. I was hoping you'd swing by." His face was starting to become a shade darker as he flailed helplessly in the air.

"You sure do know how to piss people off, huh, Gambit?" Bobby shook his head and looked and Rogue with a frown.

"Hi, I'm Bobby, have we met before?"

Rogue looked at him and scoffed.

"Yes, _Bobby. _You cheated on me four years ago."

Bobby's eyes widened.

"Rogue?! Oh, wow, you look…great. I'm sorry about four years ago, I'm a lot older now and not as stupid-"

Rogue's other hand shot out and Bobby was propelled backwards, his mouth suddenly closed and his limbs glued to his body.

"_Quiet." _She commanded.

"Rogue. I don't like Gumbo either but you put him down before he dies, darling." Logan said cautiously.

"That's the point. I want him to _die._"

"What the hell did he do? Marie this isn't like you-"

"That's because I AM NOT MARIE!" She spat and glared at Logan cruelly, her eyes flashing yellow and the windows in the room suddenly bursting inwards.

_WHEN WOULD THEY REALIZE SHE HAD CHANGED? IT HAD BEEN FOUR YEARS! FOUR YEARS AND THESE FOOLS STILL TREATED HER LIKE-_

"Come on, mon amour, don't tell me y've fo'gotten ev'ything Remy done fo' y'."

"Oh no I haven't. That's exactly why I'm going to enjoy your death, especially for what you did to Julien."

She dropped him suddenly. Remy fell to the ground almost gracefully, regaining his composure and sucking in air as he stared up at her cheekily.

"You're still gorgeous when you're pissed off, mon amour."

"What is going _on_ in here! Probably Bobby and Gambit as usual-" Jubilee stopped in the doorway and looked around at the fallen glass. Behind her entered Storm and the Professor, both of whom seemed equally shock.

"Alright you two, I think this is too far! Remy!" Storm sighed.

"You think it's always my fault! Remy did not'in' but greet dis hea' cher, and what he get? Screaming and almost choked to death, non?" He coughed and leaned against the wall.

"Bobby!" A slight squeal and a pink clad Kitty Pryde ran into the room kneeling besides the blond in earnest.

"He's not moving! Robert!"

"He'll be fine. He just talks too damn much." Rogue scoffed, her eyes still on Gambit.

"Remy know what y' thinkin' cher and no, didn't do it. And that whole wedding thing not mon fault. Remy not the type."

"You betrayed your own family. You started a war Ah thought Ah had stopped! You almost killed Julien y' damn fool and Belladonna was broken hearted b'caus' o' y', so don't tell me it ain't y' fault Cajun. Ah can't wait t' take y' back t' N'awlins so Marcus can deal wit' y' himself."

"Rogue, what's going on here?" Xavier asked frowning.

"Nothin', Professah. Just got business t' settle with yo' resident Cajun. And how pray tell-did ya get yo'self hea? Who helped you escape sentencing? Goddamn it Remy Ah looked like a fool b'cause of y'!"

Rogue almost screamed. Instead she flicked her wrist and sent Remy flying into the opposite wall.

"Ah should just kill y' here and send a message to the Assassin's."

_Kill him and get this over with .Emma._

_The presumptuous fool thought he could get away with it and mock you. .Mystique._

_Xavier's a fool, he let himself be overcome by Ms. Gray when she could have been used .Magneto. _

_I told you I could show you my power. The power I hid from you when you **tried **to kill me. Do you want to see it? Want to see it Rogue? .Selene. _

_I don't understand what's going on .Logan. _

_Since when did this-_

_You should kill him, rip his heart out-_

_No, we're peaceful we-_

_So much blood, you muties, I don't under-_

_How did this happen? I was in Germany one minute and then-_

_**YOU WANTED TO TAKE MY POWERS FROM ME, ROGUE! SO HERE THEY ARE **_.Selene.

Rogue stopped and shook her head, her right eye twitched and she felt a migraine blind her, crippling her thoughts as the psyches began to pile up.

"Rogue? Rogue what's wrong?" Storm asked.

"Her psyches are going haywire. I'll try to-_AGGGHHHH!!" _Xavier screamed and started to convulse in his chair.

Storm screamed as well as her mentor's eyes began to roll in his head.

"Professor!"

**HOW DOES IT FEEL ROGUE? .SELENE.**

"What the fuck are y' tryin' t' do? Ah killed y' goddamn it, get the fuck ovah it." Rogue spat and felt another wave of energy ripple across her body.

"Rogue, cher, is it y'r powers, amour?" Remy picked her up and held her protectively.

"Rogue? Get your slimy hands off her Cajun."

**THIS IS JUST THE START, ROGUE. MMM, SUCH A DELICIOUS POWER, WOULDN'T YOU AGREE. AHHH….AND THIS IS THE BEST PART MY DEAR…. .SELENE.**

Rogue felt something in her _lurch. _

It was a familiar feeling, a feeling she had before when she…absorbed others. But no one was touching her no one was-_**LURCH!**_

"Oh my Gahwd." Rogue whispered and felt it pulse through her and out before she could stop it.

The draining feeling pulled around her and she felt Gambit fall away from her as he screamed in pain. Next fell Logan, and then Kitty, and then Storm and then Xavier and suddenly screams filled her mind, screams that multiplied as this tremendous pull pulsated throughout her mind and throughout the Institute searching for sentient beings and _pulling…. _

"AAAAH!!!" Rogue stumbled forward, running as she tried to both leave and stop herself from draining without touching the people in the Institute.

Before her blurred vision she could see a woman there, a woman dressed in black smiling black lipstick. A woman who wasn't a powerful psyche or an illusion.

"Ahh, Rogue, my dear, hello again. Remember me? Selene?"

Rogue screamed as her nose and ears began to bleed and she fell into darkness.

OoOoOoOime

Hope you liked. I couldn't figure out for a while the best way to make this understandable, but this felt much better than my past rough drafts. Anyhow, the next chappie will be much longer, with a lot of explaining and some revelations about Selene... if you don't understand what went on here or have an inkling (an inkling to me is good enough) than tell me and I'll try to either explain or make this chapter clearer. Until next time, which will be soon.


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